my bad

seeing that my blog is slowly turning into a tumblr (no offense to the tumblr kids) where things that entertain me make their way and I provide no real commentary, I will attempt to recount my last few months that have, in all seriousness, blurred by, just like the previous months before these.

November

Location(s): Hong Kong (post Halloween), Saigon, Long Xuyen, Rach Gia
Music: RATATAT, I Heart Hiroshima, probably some Lykke Li

Video:

Recap: I got pink eye. I freaked out and thought I would go blind, then 2 days later I started to think it was sorta cool, if you put aside the pain and eye boogers that came with it (thank you codeine). I thought I would spare you from pictures I took of my red eyes, but for those who dare, click here. Someone asked me if she looked into my eyes, wether she could get pink eye too, and she proceeded to avoid eye contact with me. With that being noted, RATATAT was well the eye disease. Somewhere in the month: I woke up stumbled out of bed into the park to see some damn meteor showers. 

A few mosquito bites later, none were seen, and I felt my bed calling me. Turkey day occurs. Earlier in the month I visited the homes of families who picked trash for a living, their existence was on trash, they played on trash, they slept on trash, they shopped in trash, and then trash had another meaning for me. This moment still leaves me a tad confused as I don't really know what to think. I consistently have contrasting experiences, from the loud honks of motorbikes to beating crescendo nights to things like this, where an eery silence fills the air because nothing else can.

December

Location(s): Saigon, Long Xuyen

Music: Lady Gaga, probably some Rilo Kiley, Animal Collective, and Bats for Lashes

Recap: I get lost with a xe om driver for nearly an hour. My cellphone doesn't have reception in rural areas. My ass hurts. Then Christmas occurs. I meet awesome folks. Friends begin to visit me. I fall in love with Vietnam more and more.

Current month: January

Location(s): Saigon, Long Xuyen

Music: Reverie Sound Revue, Zee Avi, a revisit to Arcade Fire & Smashing Pumpkins

Recap: I get food poisoning & my cellphone is stolen. Despite this, it's going to be a damn good year. I began it, by looking at my cellphone, since Vietnamese people don't count down. Mixed with interesting clubbing experiences, adventures with old and new friends comin' into Vietnam, site visits, and not really cleaning my room, this month has been a great doozy. Photos will be uploaded shortly. I'll end this entry with a video that I am currently obsessed with, for its great playlist of songs, and the simplicity behind it.

BOOMBOX from Ely Kim on Vimeo.

hey kids.

I will be back. more ways than one.

will

be away for a while. satisfying my saigonite self and some work bizz. I will leave you with something that just danced by ears. reminiscint of my all time favs The Unicorns and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!

the unicorns:

clap your hands say yeah:

having

a tendency to fall in love with artists and forgetting them. then falling in love with them again when their art happens to stumble in front of me again. this is my relationship with jeff wall. his stuff is pretty damn awesome.

[source]

[source]

[source]

this

is one of the major reasons why I'm here. Mom's old middle school friend showed me some pictures this past week along with a huge bag of perfectly homemade pickled mangoes, some custardy apple like fruits, and a reconnection that my mom wouldn't probably ever thought possible. Her daughter. Her childhood friend. Enjoy the photos. They kick back to the 70's.

My mom (Bottom row, on the left) and the girls in her class. circa 1975.

Photo portrait of my mom given to her friend. circa 1975. My brother and I tried many times to imitate her signature as kids. Never achieved it.

        

Classmate photo of Mom (2nd girl to inwards from the left) and classmates. They actually have yearly reunions, with t-shirts, cups, cute stories about who had crushes on who, and a website.

Mayer

Hawthorne - Just Ain't Gonna Work Out. And really folks? Great song, but what's better than a red, heart shaped vinyl? Watch it spin.

35 mm

along with the wonderful rainbow flowered default borders that come when developing film in Long Xuyen, Vietnam (you have to tell them you DON'T want the borders when first ordering, lesson learned). After a lot of pouting I still thought the pictures were worth posting. click on the photo to see a way big version of it.

currently

messin' with my ears (props to my friend Aline thanks for this!), these Canadians are currently accompanying me:

                              

Reverie Sound Revue 

And their website is full of goodies, both free and refreshing.

Reverie Sound Revue - You Don't Exist If I Don't See You from Boompa Records on Vimeo.

damn

day 3 of the new year I already broke a resolution.

To write a page in my notebook everyday. I suppose resolutions are meant to be broken. I was never the one to actually follow my resolutions nor keep them. C'est la vie, I suppose. I don't mind that it's broken.

But somedays you just forget.

The night becomes tiring.

And sleep overcomes you.

Seeing that I will still continue to write as much as I can. a page a day.  My mind hardly ever focuses, but somehow I get things done, and things are produced and they last for me. I've kept this blog since July 28th, 2006. My oh my how things have changed. How since 2006 I've grown, and how since 1987 my mind continues to absorb and understand others. Compassion for others.

But still in 2010, my mom's voice and suggestions continues to soothe me. My stomach hurt today. I called my mom to tell her, although I've already taken care of myself (sort of) by drinking 7-Up and taking medicine. But still I call to tell her. To just let her know, in case maybe she has a better remedy. Maybe the remedy is just to hear her. She tells me that she is in Boston Market, with my brother and dad. She updates me about her Las Vegas adventures, and she let's me know about her invitation to an upcoming Miss America show in Vegas with two free buffet meals. I'm excited for her. She tells my dad that I'm excited. He asks in the background when I'm coming back (as a joke that I won't be back for the two buffet meals).

I look at a photo of my mom and dad. I see that they are getting older from my last memory of them. This makes me sad, although their voices on the phone remain the same. the same as I was in college. the same as I was in middle school. the same as when they yelled at me for drawing on the walls. I liked to draw on walls. I've been a person that likes to distant myself, maybe because the distance provides a sense of closeness. The kind of closeness that can only be achieved when you miss someone.

and then green eucalyptus oil consumes me. reminding me that I'm in Vietnam. I go in the morning to eat Banh Uot but I feel like throwing up and only consume half of it. The coffee lady jokes with me and tells me that I only have to pay for what I ate. I laugh because she usually doesn't joke nor does she smile much, I suppose she's taken a liking to me. She asks me what my lanyard is for, I say it's for my keys. She asks if I bought medicine yet for my stomach and I said yes I have. She asks if this is my bicycle and I smile and say yes. Little things like this make me fall for Long Xuyen a little bit more.

---

while watching Juno with an 8 year old in Vietnam

(In Vietnamese)

Kim Hoang: What's wrong with her stomach?

Me: She has a baby

Kim Hoang: What? Why? She's so young!

Me: Uhh yeah...

Kim Hoang: Is that the dad?

Me: No its the other boy that is her age

Kim Hoang: How did it happen?

Me: ... (caught between languages and not really wanting to explain sex to an 8 year old)

Kim Hoang: Did they drink alcohol?

Me: ...no...you know...they just...*make random hand gestures, clap hands together*

Kim Hoang: Oh...ok. I see.

my

new year's day started with me not really wanting to wake up. After a night of revery in the club or "disco" (as the locals in Long Xuyen call it) I pretty much had enough of clubbing. Having spent several hours next to 40 something year old men downing Hennessy XO, confusing women with lady boys, and confused awkward Vietnamese women who were just "hanging around" and closeted men falling all over one another on the dance floor... I felt weird.

However, amused at the situation. I observed and danced. And thought to myself how I could easily become a DJ here. There are a few elements that a Vietnamese DJ needs: an Ed Hardy shirt (or something remotely flashy), an unnecessary trucker hat (two colors would do best), some large headphones to throw in the mix, and the ability to add rising crescendo's intermittently among mashed up songs, with the same repetitive beat over and over and over again. Oh how people in the disco love to shout and yell for no reason during a song as well. Wooooooo! Who are they woooo-ing at?

Before I knew it, I looked at my cellphone. 11:59 pm.

12:00 am. New Year's YAY! With an announcement a good 10 minutes later.

This is how I rung in my new year's.

My night had sprinkles of text messages and calls from friends and family probably what was making my night, besides the plate of fruit at the disco, the sporadic dance moves of others, and the very polite security staff.

But eventually I rolled out of bed around 10:19 am. Not really sure what to do on the first day of the year. I think I debated many options in my head. I cleaned my room and folded laundry instead. As I always do when I'm a tad overwhelmed with things.

With my new biking abilities I decided to go out to get Pho as my first meal of the year at this food stand around the block.

Today the pho vendor started to talk to me and I learned that he was making pho for about 17 years. Many many years of perfecting his pho recipe. He told me how he picked his meat and I asked about his special sauce which he grinds by hand. It's pretty much the best sauce I've ever had.

Then I sat there. Looking across from me, where the very organized trash pickers were sorting out their finds. I was thinking that my new year's day would be uneventful. But I thought to myself how lucky I was to be sitting in Long Xuyen, enjoying the warm basking sun, talking to the pho vendor and observing these people work. I waved hi to the Banh Uot food vendors as they drove by. I knew that they've been up since about 330 am to make Banh Uot, and that they had just finished their shopping for tomorrow's food. I took a bike ride around. And then back by 2ish so that I can ring in the new year's all over again with my favorite people.

Happy New Year's Everyone.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi!