as a heads up, this will NOT be a long post. it’s too hot and i want to jump into the pool. i’ll only be making a post about the first day, even though i’m already on the third day. i need time to process. fucking norleans.

so good in this shit hot weather

but let’s just talk about how much of a goddamn party city this is. they sell fucking hard liquor in the goddamn pharmacies. they sell shots in the liquor stores. as long as it ain’t in glass, you can drink on the street whatever. it is an insane little city.

the best medicine evar

and it is awesome.

and the hostel reflects the awesomeness. it’s a relatively giant compound with fish and a pool and colourfulness and is just a great time. they legitimately have a refrigerator just for alcohol. it’s such a good time, i’m going to be spending most of today in the pool to cool off.

i actually really want a tattoo of a koi

i made dinner the first night i got in for the mates i met at the hostel and then we went out. the crew was lisa from texas, the jarhead, the canadien, the manx, howard and miss serena. after a fucking epic journey that ended up actually getting us to the place after the band had played and seeing what felt like almost all of norleans, we ended up meeting with these two local girls. they were med students at tulane and walked us over to frenchman street… which was significantly better than the shithole known as bourbon street.

me n miss lisa

the folks on the bus

where are we going?!

we ended up having an awesome time going from jazz club to jazz club, listening to awesome livem usic and generally getting plastered. we met up with this AWESOME jazz singer by the name of miss arlee who ended up singing at every place we went and getting the crowd moving.

the crew on bourbon street

hiho the derry-o, it's the crew don't yanno

the dirty manx

dba band

miss alex and her band, awesome

miss arlee singing

me and the canadien

i’m sorry i’m not at my most eloquent this morning. it’s too fucking hot and there’s most likely too many toxins still in my body.

i will update about the next day later on… and i will say that i am beginning to write again, which is awesome sauce.

life is like a girl you pick up, you never know what you’re gon’ get.

what is this asian dude doing?!

i did the parade, which was sorta interesting. there were hella people. dc during fourth of july is absolutely ridiculous. but i was struck by two things during the parade… firstly that there was such a falun dafa contingent, and of course, seeing my friend quynh marching with the vietnamese american contingent.

falun dafa army

viet-am contingent

artistic rendition of my friend quynh

tourist of doom

afterwards, i headed over to the hare krishna festival of india. it was pretty dope, lots of folks came through, free food, got myself a henna hand tattoo. and i was once again by the kindness of the hare krishna boys, who helped to find my phone when it dropped outta my pocket. considering how i’m living, my cellphone is crucial. if i lost my phone i would be completely screwed. they went out of their way to help me out, and i hella appreciated it. honestly, i just hope and pray i meet as many cool and kinda and good hearted folks as i did among the hare krishna boys.

hare krishna stage

henna of love

quynh and me

hare rama hare rama

afterwards, i headed over to the natl gallery. again. i love that place.

dc pizza... good enough only for the birds

i finished up the night by hanging out with liz and her friends, at the most baller picnic i have ever been to. like holy jeebus. we went to the national cathedral, which is one of the most GORGEOUS buildings i have ever been to in my life. it took my breath away and made me want to believe in god again, it was so gorgeous. liz and her friends were some of the most awesome folks i’ve ever met, kind, open and with this very relaxed, chill vibe that made me feel right at home.

oh david.

it's too big!... that's what she said.

look ma! a cathedral!

she might look sweet but...

the whole group

and goddamn, what a spread!

helllllla foood

after the fireworks, with attendant elderly bitching about folks not sitting down… we went back to liz’s apartment to play games and play with sparklers. a great time was had by all. liz had a baller apartment. and after that hansi and minjung took me to dc 9… which is by far the most hipster club i have ever seen outside of williamsburg. i felt right at home. it was a great, great time and i am so happy that liz invited me and her friends were so awesome. and now they’re my friends too!

cranium hijinks

everyone look like they're having fun!

sparklers

and i once again was struck by the goodness of people, because all the people i met, david, esther, minjung, hans and even the mafia champion deborah were all such good, giving people who were so down with taking me in as one of them.

so the 5th was a bust so i’m not going to discuss it very much. i managed to get lunch with liz, which is always amazing. it was good seeing her one last time ‘fore i left because i knew i was leaving DC with a life long friend.

and then 16 hour bus ride, only broken by meeting a really dope homegirl named sarah who was going to knoxville from DC to do work. we talked about activism and organizing and it was good to meet another young progressive who was doing work. it almost made me want to start doing work again.

but burnout is a bitch.

i am presently in nashville and will update more as time goes on. i have a bunch of other stuff i am ’sposed to talk about and will eventually… but first, a nap. also, i’ll have photos of lunch with liz, what i look like with full gear and of sarah soon as i can get facebook uploader to work.

i’ll update a mite before heading out to experience nashville tonight. peace yall.

Yesterday, as pretty much all the days hanging out with jb have been down here, was hella fun. We went to get a murland traditional feast meal thing, steamed crabs. Jesus christo, I ate more crab than I have ever eaten before. I actually got to the point where if I had eaten anymore, I might honestly have barfed.

before we ate

But goddamn was it good. Pricey, but good. And old bay is the strangest flavour I have ever had in my life, but it ain’t bad. It actually grows on yu, like mold. Or a girlfriend with a really high voice. But honestly, I had a lot of fun eating a lot of crabs… though I kinda wish I went to the restaurant dirty dick’s… because apparently their motto is “I got my crabs at dirty dicks.”

after we ate

But it was in the drive over to harris’ and back that got me really thinking. You gotta remember, I was already hopped up on benadryl at the time, so I wanted to crash out… but jb turned the music up, bumped the hard rock, opened te windows and proved to me that it could actually be awesome to drive. You gotta understand, I hate, hate, hate cars. I don’t like driving. I hate the concept of it. but I will admit, there is a visceral joy in driving fast down the highway with your radio blasting the right music. What a goddamn great experience. One of many so far, and hopefully one of many more.

so pretty, my camera does no justice

Afterwards we went back to annapolis to kick it and drink, as per usual. I really don’t have much to say about this segment of the night, except that naptown folks are hella friend. Also, drink jim weed. It’s this awersome sauce sweet tea flavoured vodka. If we had it up north, I would honestly be drunk 99% of the time, it’s that good. And if you stop down here, stop by Dock Street Bar, which is a hella excellent crab cake establishment with friendly bartenders.

Now, as I’m writing this from the baltimore zen center, I felt like I should shout them out. My friend jb is one of the teachers here and it’s a great place. Welcoming, homey and offering a variety of classes from meditation to martial arts. If you’re interested in buddhist zen meditation or to learn martial arts, you should check them out.

zen jb

Finally, I am going to be in DC over this 4th of july weekend and am telling yall, that if you’re in the area to hit me up. Especially if you know anyone in nashville cuz I know no one in that city at all… but definitely want someone to show me around all the honkytonks or whatever.

find all my odd-yssey pictures so far here… http://www.facebook.com/vinh.hua?ref=profile#/album.php?aid=2071973&id=34604166

See you on the road.

masters of the universe

Life is like cat allergies, it could always be worse.

before anything, i wanted yall to know that i was featured by bostonprogress radio in their emerging api artists feature. check it out here.

furthermore, if’n you want to see the photos of the odd-yssey so far, visit my facebook.

i realized that i am hella hella horribly allergic to cats. furthermore, that it’s hard to enjoy the day when your lungs are fucked up because of cats and even MORE that taking more benadryl than is recommended is pretty much asking to be knocked out.

whoa.

but i needed this day, that wasn’t jampacked in activity, so that i could really soak it what had happened the night before. more importantly, i needed it to recover, because between my horrible allergies to the cats and the general work of it all, i was completely beat and getting sick.

getting sick on a trip like the one i’m taking is probably not the most intelligent thing i could possibly do. being on a bus getting from state to state, hopped up on the benadryl and the feeling of death would probably not be very good.

so a day hanging out with my buddy jb, going to a bookstore, doing my first zen buddhist medtiation, those were exactly what the doctors ordered.

for breakfast, we ate at Ledo’s Pizza… which wasn’t actually horrible. which is weird, considering i pretty much consider every non-new york pizza to be wacksauce of epic proportions. hell, i actively go find new york pizzas in different places to try their ny pizza out… because no matter how awful, it’s most likely going to be better than the rest of the pizza joints. but ledo’s wasn’t bad. it was most definitely different, this somewhat strange maryland food that was familiar but not quite. admittedly, ledo’s is a chain, which i don’t usually eat at… but it isn’t one of the massive, evil chains, but a local family one that is actually kinda nice.

extra thin crust, a slightly sweeter sauce and fucking huge portions, even by new york standards. not bad at all actually. but considering they’re pretty close to new york, i’m just the tiniest bit afraid that any pizza i get from now until i return to new york will be wack.

but whatever, today, i feel less sick. maybe some of that was all the rest i got. at least some of that had to be the claritin and the benadryl, maybe some of it was the extreme hot sauce amounts i put in my ledo’s pizza… but more than that, i feel like at least some of it is going to this zen buddhism class my buddy ran.

i’m not going to talk about it too much. there’s lots of information about buddhist meditation online. but i definitely do feel like it was imporrtant that i did it. it was necessary. this is a journey just as much about self-discovery as it is about food or about jiu jitsu or about sight seeing.

i need to start stripping down my pretensions and the bullshit in my self. come face to face with the inner and really acknowledge it. from there, i need to work with it, maybe open myself up in such a way that i can deal with all the hangups and pain that i have in my being. les face it folks, even though i’m an artist, i have a bad tendency to repress the negative emotions in myself. part of that is just because i am horribly sensitive.

and i know that’s at least potentially pretentious to say, but let me elaborate. some people are more sensitive than others. either because they are more in tune with their emotions or just because their emotions are just more intense. do i believe that i feel more strongly than others? yes. i am a man of intense passions and feeling. is that a good thing? probably not. it’s equivalent to someone saying they have the ability to eat a lot but without the addition of having a high metabolism. i feel… that’s what i do. and then i try to paint those feelings for all of you to read. and i love it. and i hate it. because the intense joy i can feel is something that i wish i could share with each and every one of you. the pain though… i wouldn’t want to wish on anyone else. not to mention the insecurity, the constantly questioning. but then every negative is balanced by the all consuming joy of being in love. god giveth and he taketh away. and then he kicks in the balls. c’est le vie.

so i guess it’s a balancing act. one i’m not sure i’m winning. but one that i need to be able to understand, which is why i’m so glad the baltimore zen center took me in and helped me with a little meditation, as well as sending me off with some tips and a book to try and open myself up. i neeed it. if you ever have the chance, you should roll through to the center and check it out.

finally… afterwards, me and jb, who actually lead the meditation, went into the temple hall, where i offered up my incense.

and then we sparred kali. god that was fun. i haven’t worked fighting sticks in a long time, so i was hella off and got me arse kicked by my buddy… but hey. it was hella fun.

see you all next time. one more day in murland and then im off to DC and then nashville. hope to see you somewhere along the way.

oh and ‘fore i leave… epic hilarity, especially considering i’m half canto.

(source: channelapa)

life is a bad dennis leary joke.

man, fuck NYC banh mi.

The NY Times had an article about banh mi places in the City, and goddamn me if it wasn’t written by a white person. While i haven’t been to the places in brooklyn, i’ve been to pretty much every place in Lower Manhattan and ain’t none of the banh mi places down here that ain’t wack.

folks, you gotta remember, i’m from a vietnamese-heavy neighborhood boston. i’ve been eating various banh mi my entire life. hell, every time i go back to boston, i GORGE on banh mi and cafe sua da (vietnamese iced coffee – crack). so whenever i’m in the city, ’specially when i’m homesick or missing that good ole vietnamese cooking, i go searching for pho and banh mi. while i got my pho joints, i still haven’t found a good banh mi place.

imagine how happy i was to find out that there wasn’t just one, but TWO banh mi places opening up near me. imagine how heartbreaking it was when i tried the sandwiches and they were wack?! fucking a’, one place had goddamn char siu in their banh mi. hell, most of the places in this city sell banh mi with goddamn char siu. can you say sacrilege? and though one of the places had decent cafe sua da, better than any i’ve gotten except in my favorite pho place, there’s something even more fuckin’ awful and evil about it…

every place i go is at least 2x the price i pay in boston, some places are goddamn 4x the price i pay in boston. and there’s the really core problem… this shit’s marketed to yuppies.

ain’t no vietnamese folks gon’ buy this ish. tastes awful, costs hella. whoa. let’s sell it to the white folks.

holy hell does this ever break my heart into a million pieces. and worst of all… almost all the sandwiches at these places are fusion. dude, i want me some traditional, legit vietnamese food. i come from academia so i know how problematic the whole ‘authentic’ thing is, but dude, don’t be messing with this vietnamese boy’s favorite foods.

i can’t believe i just went on a massive spiel about banh mi, but what can i say? i’m tired. haven’t really slept in awhile and am burned out on this whole academic hustle. and for whatever reason, jolt soda makes me hungry.

but no matter how emo i am, i can’t help but smile about having my hair back. live i’ve said before and i’ll say again and again, my mohawk makes me strangely happy. i like getting my hair cut, cuz the whole thing of it is that there’s hella things i ain’t got control of in my life… including how many bookings i get… but i do have some say on what my head. and the reactions from folks to an asian boy with a mohawk are just full of epic amounts of hilarity.

btw, im exhausted so i came home and watched tv. i’m watching the racism/diversity episode of better off ted. shit’s problematic as hell, but not much more than any comedy club i’ve been to… and it’s hilarious. it’s irreverent, well-written, grounded in both realities and archetypes and is able to pull off the straight faced satire thing. which is hella hard. and it doesn’t even depend on awkwardness for its hilarity like the office does. win.
——————————-

(this poem is a little wack, but hey, waddya expect, im churning ‘em out like whoa)

barback nights
(after ed bok lee’s real karaoke people)

real bar people have accents, speak
with lisps and slurring, at home
in the cacophonies.

real bar people have faces
carved haphazardly, striking
bas-reliefs in shadowed lighting.

real bar people know all
about their bartenders’
lovers, vicarious wish fulfillment

real bar people know intimately
both the sun and the moon, have breakfasts
after closing with the bar backs

real bar people are all broken hearted poets, failed
screenwriters and investment bankers with no nose
for the trade.

real bar people make snide remarks
about frat boys barfing, college girls
leaving with ugly guys

real bar people know the signs of a fight
make bets if it ain’t regulars, make fists if it is
jokes if it’s the bouncer

real bar people have droopy eyes
and sagging shoulders, their favorite seats
and usual drinks.

real bar people share drinks
to split loneliness and laughter
as a middle finger to fate

i know more real bar people
than i know any other kind.

————————–

life is like lost… you might think you know what’s going on, but even the writers have no idea.

dude, weschler’s currywurst is fucking bomb. because my plans had fallen through last night… yes i got ditched… i hit up my local watering establishments for some late night alcohol and food.

how was i ’sposed to know i would find my new favorite watering hole? massive, amazing german beers poured by a hella efficient, friendly staff. currywurst, which i will officially say is one of my favorite foods ever. a wild boar sausage that was literally to die for.

alcohol and pork. how the hell do you go wrong with that?

but yes, i just needed to make a quick shoutout to the place before i got into the poem of the day. i hella recommend that folks should roll through there whenever they’re in the east village. and hey, since i live near there, you should hit me up, if’n i’m not already inside.

oh yeah, i won my slam last night. made a pretty penny. i’ll be back next month, alcohol money is worth slamming for.

but let me say again, this posting schedule is kicking my ass. i never realized how difficult it’d be to turn out a poem a day. jeebus. but yes, onto the poem’s intro. this piece comes from the fact that i really do have goddamn weird dreams, that are, to me anyways, completely believable while i’m in them. so i really will wake up thinking i was the bodyguard to the president and ate a bullet for him, or that i dived into a computer and rode on top of the fail whale.

awkward i know.

april 4th.
dream fail

i dreamt one time
the earth was invaded
by polkadotted unicorn space pirates
and the key to saving the world
was saving the stripper

one night, i thought i was superman
the asian dude who failed in math
and gave up the violin discovering
his gift for rescuing fair maidens
and cats stuck up in trees

the time you hadta carry me home,
drunk, i saw us as intergalactic ballerinas
our pirouettes encompassing
star systems, our soubresauts
like sun flares

when i passed out
at that party, i saw myself
as leonidas at the springs
holding off a legion
of fratboys with nothing but a braut

i woke up this morning
after having dreamt
we were still in love

turned to see you
next to me in bed, the assurance
in some deep part of myself
that all was right with the world

and realized how much
i hated dreaming