Four Poems

From my 2009 collection, BARROW

[Folktale] Phi Kowpoon

This Lao folktale seems a little less well-known than others, but I like it because it draws on many fascinating elements of Lao daily life. It might properly fall under the category of urban legend, and while some might not consider it as terrifying as a creepypasta story, I hope it gets retold in future generations, just the same. It seems there’s likely only one Phi Kowpoon, and I haven’t been able to find any sources that give her a name otherwise. As always, this is far from the final or only version, but it goes something like this:

In Laos, a man was pushing his kowpoon cart down the road in the early evening. It had been a long day, and he hadn’t sold all of his noodles. He had heard of a village nearby and decided to head that way to try his luck there. On the way, he found himself at a fork in the road near a pair of twin banyan trees. He heard a soft whimpering, and as got closer to the trees he saw a little girl weeping on a log, her long hair covering her face.

It was getting very cold, and he sat on the log next to her. He asked “Are you all right, little sister?”

The girl just kept crying softly.

“Are you from the village up ahead?”

Still, the girl gave no reply.

“It’s getting cold. And you shouldn’t be all by yourself out here. There are many scary ghosts in the jungle at night. Don’t you think you should go home?”

The girl stopped crying. Everything was quiet in the jungle. Not even the insects were making noise.

The noodle seller felt a chill wash over him as he realized something was amiss. He asked her: “Are you alive? Or are you a ghost?”

At this, the girl nodded. Trembling, the man asked one last question: “Who did this to you?”

She looked up at him with an furious, ghastly visage and pointed accusingly with a cold, gray finger, “A NOODLE SELLER LIKE YOU!!!”

The noodle seller screamed in terror and ran away so fast in fear he left his kowpoon cart behind. He was never seen in the area again. But today, if you ask around the right village, they’ll tell the story of a girl who sold noodles who was murdered long ago, her body buried by a pair of banyan tres. And sometimes, when the moon is right, you can spot her still, by her trees, smiling as she sells her kowpoon to anyone who passes by.

But don’t complain if her soup is cold.

Cthulhu Wars: Onslaught 2 Kickstarter underway

Sandy Petersen's new Cthulhu Wars Kickstarter had an amazing start, funding in less than half an hour. 3 weeks remain for Onslaught 2 to unlock several stretch goals and to enable Sandy Petersen and his colleagues to get a good reprinting of this classic game. We're seeing new pledge levels and stretch goals added regularly. 19 stretch goals have been unlocked so far, including 2 free large glow-in-the-dark minis. For those of us who backed at the De Vermis Mysteriis level during the first round, it's nice that the follow-up outlay will only be $150. I'm tempted by the 6-8 player maps, but I'll see as we get closer to the end of the campaign.

While I'm disappointed that Richard Luong isn't the lead artist on this set, the miniatures revealed thus far look like they will still be reasonably close in style that it won't be excessively jarring, although the Y'Golonac could use some reworking before the final molds are set, in my opinion.

Take a peek and consider backing it! As so many others have shown in their posts, this is a magnificent and fast-paced game with very interesting angles, non-Euclidian and otherwise, for strategic play but without geting bogged down in minutiae and micromanaging like Axis & Allies or Monopoly. I think it will be decades before a better board game centered on the Cthulhu mythos emerges now, in terms of overall quality, ease and diversity of play.

I-SEA FILM FESTIVAL November 20-22nd

In November, I'll be presenting briefly at the I-SEA FILM FESTIVAL, which also includes some amazing films from Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and elsewhere. Be sure to mark your calendars! As the organizers note:

The I-SEA Film Fest (International Southeast Asian Film Fest, Nov 21-22, 2015) highlights the histories, imaginaries and identities of those with ties to Southeast Asia and its diasporas. This year is the fortieth anniversary of US military engagements in Southeast Asia: the selected films seeks dialogue with local and international communities, drawing connections between wars then and now, overseas and on our streets. The films (9 features and 22 shorts) also query--and queers--standard national narratives of modern love, sexualities, and modernization.

Featuring work by award-winning directors (Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or, Prince Claus Foundation, Macarthur “Genius" award), Oscar nominees, rebels and art-world stars, I-SEA showcases world- class feature films, cutting-edge experimental shorts and controversial documentaries.

The Opening night gala will take place on November 20th at Artist Television Access. The festival takes place at New People Cinema in Japantown from November 21-22nd, 2015--select screenings will have post-screening Q&A with filmmakers and panels. The I-SEA Film Fest is founded by the Diasporic Vietnamese Artist Network. 

California is the home to the largest concentrations of Southeast Asian immigrants in the world. There are hundred of thousands of people of Southeast Asian descent in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and other parts of the world. Southeast Asians are both invisible and hypervisible (as model minorities, gangsters, eternal foreigners) in North American mass media. These incredibly diverse Southeast Asian communities voice the ruptures--and re-envision global realities--forged by colonization, militarization and migrations. Providing counter-points to (hetero-)normative ideologies historically constructed by the West and by Southeast Asian nation-states, our Southeast Asian stories are varied and vital.