A great percentage of my current students are Asian -- Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese. Since discussion of cultural difference is the primary content in ESL classes, I have managed to learn bits here and there about the various Asian cultures and nations of my students and my curiosity has grown ( Read more... )

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Last night, I finished watching The Impressionists, which was a little hokey: there was little real-life grimness fully realized; the soundtrack had that educational "Ah-the-beauty-of-what-we-learned" sound to it the whole time; and the painters were treated as a band of low-fi superheroes like a painterly Fantastic Four, each with his own ( Read more... )

In a comment-conversation with badfaggot, I was prompted to think of historical queer culture and New Orleans and remembered I had recently read in Southern Cultures an article that featured photographs of 1950's bohemian/literary New Orleans that were decidedly queer.

I tracked down the article again and actually read it and found that the photos were by ( Read more... )

The other night I watched, on a whim, Mike Figgis's Hotel. Narratives within narratives, with intriguing filmic techniques, it comes across as a really smart movie. You have the making of a Dogma version of The Duchess of Malfi being documented by an MTV-like schlock crew in a Venetian hotel whose staff and other clientele have a couple of other ( Read more... )

Recently reading sunsmogseahorse's entries on religion -- as well as reading clarkelane's entries about the importance of artists' engaging with critical discourse -- have lead me to think a lot about the roles of religion/spirituality, science, art, and politics/ethics. More than that, they've reminded me to search a seam that unites these discourse/disciplines ( Read more... )

A little late on a Saturday, but ... .

For the tail end of your day, f8n_begorra: The painterly poet reminds me of all the bottle-tippin', canvas-starin', and jaw-flappin' we did when I was in San Fran -- with you, with whiskerfish, and with Richard.

Take a belly-, a mouth-, and an eye-full:

( Wild Gardens Overlooked by Night Lights )

dom_ino and I spoke briefly about personal goals for the coming year, mostly in terms of projects that would lead to personal growth. Since I said earlier that I'd like not to bog myself down this winter -- like I did with the poet essays this past fall -- and make this colder season more about whimsical pleasures, I want to be both selective and vague ( Read more... )