soundtrack to this blogpost will be steve earle, more specifically my new favourite song, johnny come lately, as well as everything else in the now classic copperhead road album. add in tennessee blues, a coupla beers and you’ll have yourself a mighty fine night. steve earle has that classic americana sound that speaks to me for whatever reason, and most of all, best of all, he tells fucking amazing stories. listen to copperhead road or johnny come lately and believe you me, you’ll fall in love with the man. even if folks on the left ain’t into him because he’s honkytonk bluegrass and folks on the right hate him cuz he’s against the war. fuck that. steve earle’s a god.
honestly, i wish i could sing, not only for karaoke (which always is a consideration), but so that i could sing songs like steve earle and mcgowan and tom watts do. goddamn. ballads and stories about real folks, truth that touches the heart.
*edit and aside* if any of yall know where i can find vietnamese folk, like old tyme vietnamese ballads, please send ‘em my way. ive heard some from my dad and some stuff that was on paris by night and such, but i need to hear more. in all seriousness, most vietnamese pop drives me nuts. too disco-ey… but i want to get in touch with those old ballady folksy roots that ive known very little.
i know i’ve been remiss with posting, my only excuse is that i was working on my thesis and finishing up college. congrats to me on graduating.
but along with that comes big big decisions about the trajectory of my life, my vision for the future and my development as a human being, a citizen and an artist.
so what else to do but take an odd-yssey ‘cross the continental united states? imma be hitchhiking, busing and generally trekking all o’er the place. i feel like there’s so much of this country that i haven’t seen and this will give me both an excuse and an opportunity to be a tourist all over the place. i’ll be able to perform at different joints and poetry venues wherever i can find ‘em, train at jiu jitsu places from coast to coast and even get a touch of culture and cuisine by eating local and visiting museums and honkytonks. more importantly than that, i’ll get to meet and get to know hella people from all walks of life, i’ll get to write, really allow myself to throw myself into art without the distractions of the city.
and most of all, i’ll get to maybe wrestle an alligator.
i’ll be blogging the trip the entire way, committing myself to at least one blog post a day, no matter how large or small. i’ll be leaving towards the end of june and taking a month to trek ‘cross the country to the apia spoken word and poetry summit, which yall should attend if you possibly can.
but as a part of that… if you have couch space or an idea of places to go or recommendations or advice or words of wisdom, please, please send ‘em my way. if you know someone who’d be willing to host or show me ’round their neck of the woods, please holler at ‘em for me. also, if you have any experience with couchsurfing.org, i’d love to hear from you.
and watch out for a viet am poet boy with a big backpack round where you live in the months of july and august.
i’ll be posting more in the next few days about the tirp and more writing, it feels damn nice to have time to write again.
but for now, more trip planning and xbox 360 
.
life is a journey, no wonder so many folks are lost.
Tags: jits, journey, manhood, project, ramblings, ruminations
are u making this trip all by your lonesome?? either way sounds like shit tons of fun. if i’m in the area if/when you swing by the bay you are well taken care of =)