Upcoming

With the start of my PhD program, I am scaling back on readings and events in general. I think these programs will be the last for awhile...

October 4, 8 pm
Reading w/ Lee Montgomery
Reed College (Psych 105)
Portland, OR

October 6 (11 am - 12:15 pm)
Workshop
Write on the Sound Conference
Edmonds, WA

February 2, 2007, 4 pm
Off-site AWP Reading w/ Andrew Schelling, Margaret Gibson, Rick Benjamin and Tom Morgan
Rubin Museum of Art (co-sponsored by Poets & Writers)
New York, NY

March 26, 2007
Reading
Riverside Public Library
Riverside, CA

March 27, 2007
Workshop
Upland Public Library
Upland, CA

R.I.P. Mary Rising Higgins.

Our move to the Pacific NW marks the first time that I will have lived on the W. Coast since leaving So Cal in 1993. On our recent trip to Seattle, I noticed how remarkably friendly and laid back - even chatty people were. I lived in Boston for so long that a certain edginess and function-based conversation rubbed off on me, along with the development for an impatience for the long-winded and bloated. And yet, being back in that environment, I was reminded of growing up in California, how easy-going everyone could be - to the extent that you can relax, slow down, let down your guard, let down your hair and simply be yourself. Though Dallas might have had the potential for a similar quality, I think I was caught up too much of the time these last few years in playing out cultural and familial roles, to the extent that I've become more of a fighter than a lover, which is to say that I look forward to going back to being a lover and not a fighter.

Sightings

Hand-cut, customized copies of Sightings are suspended until I get up to Seattle. Please contact Sandra Doller at 1913 Press for orders - she has a shipment of 50 copies that are due to arrive any day, the California postal service allowing.... we just got an order for 150 copies from SPD - which means that at this point over 50% of the print run is out in the world.

A clean slate

September 1 was the scheduled pub date for Nutritional Feed and for a variety of reasons and creative differences, the project will not be produced by Tupelo. As the original release date approaches, I see the book advertised heavily on the internet at Walmart, Target, Barnes & Noble, Consortium, Tower and Overstock. If you pre-ordered, get your money refunded as the project is not happening this Fall. It will have another, much better life.

The itinerary

Aug 22: Mayflower picks up our stuff
Aug 23: Dallas to Placitas, NM
Aug 24: Placitas to Boulder
Aug 25: Boulder to somewhere in Utah - probably Ogden
Aug 26: Utah to a wine vineyard in Lewiston, Idaho
Aug 27: Lewiston to Seattle
Aug 28 - 31: Mayflower arrives/we paint apartment

Sept 1-3: Rest over Labor Day weekend/Bumbershoot/Whiting's gig at the Henry

What are interesting stopovers in Utah? Oh yes, I remember, from the road trip we took in 2000.

Making room for the new

Between Kort and I we have gotten rid of something like 10 shopping bags of old belongings, 10 shopping bags of old books, and 10 shopping bags of old clothing. Objects downsized have included:

a Cuisinart
Jeni Olin's Chinese teapot
washer/dryer
bamboo screens
plastic Mardi Gras beads
wool flannel shirts
lucky bamboo
ficas tree
potted plant
feather coat
tape-player Walkman
small portable radios
old mixed tapes
Karen X's Chinese teapot
a book on how to play the ukulele
baking sheet
construction brief case
silk ties

Our departure date for Seattle is Aug 22/23. Our apartment is in shambles!

On the job front, looks like I may be continuing as a telecommuter for the wellness company that has been my summer job. I also have an app in as director of a poetry festival on Whidbey Island. This could all work out!

There seriously needs to be a "Sex in the City" type show for Asian-Americans. Kort and I ate at Ajisen last night and were next to a table of AA women. Things overhead:

"Taiwanese guys got no game."

"My mother doesn't understand the word "lame", so instead of saying 'Chinese guys are lame,' I have to say 'Chinese guys are stupid.'"

"My mom gets her expressions mixed up, so she says stuff like "I'll give you my three cents."

"My husband is into online gambling."

This weekend we went to see "Mon Meilleur Ami", a touching French film on the subject of friendship. Francois (Daniel Auteuil) is a struggling art and antiquities dealer who buys a Greek vase at an auction that shocks his business partner. The vase is of Achilles and Patroclos and was commissioned by a patron upon the death of his best friend. The vase would not really command much of an investment return - but it is a purchase based on emotions. Francois' business partner accuses him of not having any friends - not a single person who would show up at his funeral. The two make a bet (for the vase) that Francois will be able to produce an acceptable friend within 10 days and Francois' journey to find his best friend begins. He finds an unlikely companion in Bruno (Dany Boone), a taxi driver, who struggles with his difficulty in connecting - Bruno is a repository for facts and information - a quiz-show contestant in training - who is misunderstood by his peers, despite his ability to be sociable with almost anyone. The two men develop a very authentic and intimate friendship - a friendship which all of us can only hope to experience once in this lifetime. True friendships are harder to come by than love.

SIGHTINGS is now available for order from 1913 Press here. Support small press publishing and order directly from 1913, in lieu of Amazon and other distributors.

Taslima Nasreen was attacked at her book signing. Clarissa Pinkola Estes writes about it here.

As of August 15, our new address is:

Shin Yu Pai & Kort Bergman
6321B Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115

A stone's throw from the East West Bookstore in Ravenna, SIOM and the Kerala Ayurveda Clinic.

Many many thanks to editor and translator Lucas Klein for his gracious review of SIGHTINGS in Rain Taxi.