wordstress

So I recently found out that people are starting to buy my CD in Australia and that it's making people think about things like Asian identity, colonization etc. That blows my mind away and I hope they build like crazy over there and that we'll be hearing about the revolution soon!!!

Also, I just discovered today that you can IM on myspace, never knew before!

(oh and to the person I was IMing with, yes for sure)

......so today was the first class of our Asian Arts Freedom School.......and it went really well! A whooping 30 people showed up and ethusiatically shared their stories with the class. To me the big turnout really shows that people want and need an asian arts space.......And we really put the pan in pan-asian as we had a really good cross section of the Asian Diaspora, a good number of arab, east and south asian, and some southeast asian and people from the carribbean. Also, a good number of queers were there as well! It feels good to create this sort of space in the t-dot.......

So I'm finally finished recording and mixing my CD and have sent it off to be manufactured, now I can get back to the important things in life like lj:

Our aboriginal sisters and brothers in Caledonia are under some serious attack right now by our wonderful government enforcement agencies as well as land developers. You can see video footage and and breaking news here:

http://auto_sol.tao.ca/

.....I'm always consciously mentioning how we are living on aboriginal land to people.....I feel I have to do that.....

....So I was at the d'bi young booklaunch today (thanks d and j for the guestlist treatment and dinner!)......it was good to chat with lillian allen tonight, I've always seen her as a poetic god and I was always too in awe to speak coherently in front of her......but tonight everything was calm and I realised that I don't really have to say that much, because she already understands....it was so heartwarming to see three generations of dub poets all on the stage....d'bi seeming like an extension and progression of those who wrote before her....this got me thinking, I feel a strong and inherent sense of artisitc connection to poets like Lillian and Dionne, but why is there such a great distance between myself and Asian-Canadian writers of past generations. Where is our version of Nobuko or Lawson or even Marilyn?.........I made a promise today that when I look at asian writers younger than me, I will always see a small piece of myself and of the continuation of a future.......

....mangoes in town this weekend.......it's like my two seperate worlds have come into phase for a brief moment of meaning, healing and passion....I think we spent most of the weekend trying to stretch the minutes of the day until they extended and etched themselves into our memories....mangoes, for those of you who read or stumble upon this page, always remember you are dear to me because of how you exist and move......

......about people moving from the states to canada is about to completely stop.....our federal election is going on right now and it looks like the country has elected the Canadian version of George Bush (with less guns, less stupid, but way more creepy).......

edit: okay so it' a minority government, but still not good......

....actually played on national television (CBC)
For those not exposed to many Canadian commercials, Lakota is a cough medicine made by non-Aboriginal people, but it's marketed as this 'mystical' native medicine that'll cure you in a jiffy!.

check this video out!

Oh how humour makes things easier to swallow......interestingly the actual commercial for Lakota is often played twice in a row, once with a Native guy speaking an Aboriginal language with English subtitles, and then a second time with the same guy speaking English......

.....so when I tell people that I'm composing music that mixes east asian accoustic instruments with electronic music I usually get responses like "that's really different" or "hmmmm cool" but noone ever says "are you serious that's what I've been doing as well"..... where are all the people with music asthetics similar to mine? And I'm not talking about the dude who thinks "wow I really like that cool sounding asian thing, it reminds of all the great songs by George Harrison and the Beatles. I'm going to use that sound to 'spice up' and add some 'flavour' to this techno track"...... I've always thought I would have to pack up my laptop and gear, haul my ass on a 14 hour flight and travel across the globe to some hot bar in Hong Kong (oh and B. I am thinking about it) or to some underground club in Bangkok to find my musical peers .......well it turns out all I had to do to find another asian-electro composer was open my door, head outside my building, and walk a block down the street....so I've been working with H. for a bit on a couple songs and it's been really exciting! She's got a really strong music background and it's really bringing out my musical side (usually i end up doing mostly vocals on stage and rarely touch an instrument) We're working on performing everything live with lots of improvisation using two laptops, electronics drums, drumpads, keyboards and whatever fits into the set. We're even working on the astheics of laptop performances and doing everything to be the exact opposite of that person who performs their music by just sitting behind a laptop, staring at the screen....this is going to be fun!!!... (by the way anyone know where to get some cheap crystals....and in the spirit of missruckus, why am I still up?!?)

......so I was walking around downtown yesterday in the rain, near Yonge Street, the media always give hope of a white Christmas, but instead of snow, everyone got wet on this particular Christian holiday...today, on those very same streets I was walking, tons of people were walking around Boxing Day shopping looking to get that incredible holiday deal (just like Black Friday in the States) and also along this same path there were at least two men firing gun shots right in the middle of the crowded streets.....1 girl dead, 2 people with serious gun shot injuries and many others wounded.....guns, death, guns, death, guns.......for the past while, the media has been painting a picture of a city exploding with violence, while communities are stressed out about the consequences.....people are saying/thinking things like "Toronto is getting more violent, like the States" and "this isn't the Toronto I know"......but personally I don't see anything that fundamentally different ( see why, here )

....Aside from graffiti, it's not too often you walk along the streets in Toronto and come across random displays of art....



...and I used to hate listening to music on monitoring headphones, but now I think it's essential, you hear so much more!......