Reading At My Book Launch

As a sneak preview, here are some of the great writers who will be reading, in additon to myself, during my book release party in August:

Bao Phi, award-winning Vietnamese American spoken word artist, writer, cultural critic, creator of Refugeography and Surviving the Translation. Frequent partner in crime in Minnesota.

Robert Karimi, Iranian interdisciplinary artist/ Guatemalan educator, playwwright, travieso, and performance poet. All-around great guy.

Katie Vang, a Hmong American spoken word artist, writer and performer, she's got very distinctive work.

Barbara Jane Reyes, the amazing Filipina American poet, cultural critic and educator, the author of Gravities of Center and Poeta en San Francisco. And she wrote the great foreword to my book.

And, last, but certainly not least, Juliana Pegues will be our MC for this unique evening.

It's packing a lot into one night, but it will be an exceptionally unique gathering of voices in the Twin Cities, and one not to be missed.

AND A VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU IN ADVANCE TO:

My peers at http://www.northography.com/ who rescheduled an entire reading just so they could attend our reading!

A Photopoetic Index to OTOSOTE

A non-linear photopoetic index of the poems included in four sections of On The Other Side of the Eye.


I. Must A World Sleep To Dream

II. A History of Water and Memory

III. Ghosts of Earth and Knowledge

IV. Miscellaneous Rumors Of My Time

Haiku Movie Reviews

It's been a while since I've done the Haiku Movie Reviews, using the ancient Japanese poetry form of 17 syllables in a 5-7-5 pattern. So, let's catch up with some in the theater and some available on DVD right now:

Children of Men
Planet without kids,
So kooks go crazy and kill.
Dark and quite British.

Day Watch
"Russians can make films?"
Action, violence and laughs.
Top-notch fantasy.

28 Weeks Later
Kids equal trouble.
Even if they are not "zombies,"
You should run away.

Vacancy
This hotel? Awful.
Some spooks, but not worth watching.
Anticlimatic.

Hills Have Eyes
Nuke mutants hate you.
Remake teaches "Stay at home.
Avoid the deserts."

Epic Movie
Unbelievable
How much SUCK can be packed
Into one movie.

Shrek 3
The real monster?
Studio executives
Who greenlit this crap.

Hostel Part 2
Tourists get killed.
But better than the first film?
Not saying that much.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3
Davy Jones? He rocks.
Second one is still better.
Asians get shafted.

Rest Stop
Why did I watch this?
Your brain cells will shrivel up.
Pure idiocy.

Wolf Creek
Lousy example
Of Australian horror.
Nothing redeeming.

Shooter
They shot his good dog
So sniper wants his revenge.
Yawn. Lots of folks die.

Pulse
This remake has none.
Based on a really good film
You should see instead.

1408
"Hotel room from hell."
King recycles some parts here.
But it is still good.

What can I say. Most of the films this month were based on travel themes. Or why not to go out of the house.

[Travel] Avoid Free Wi-Fi Scams at Airports

Having personally run into a number of both legitimate and 'suspect' networks at airports across the US while speaking this year, I strongly suggest keeping this article from Asian American Press in mind, whether you're an artist, student, tourist or on business.

It seems a lot of fake 'free wi-fi' networks are being set up in airports. As many of my readers travel frequently I say: Pay attention and don't get scammed!

Key tips to remember from the Better Business Bureau:
• Never connect to an unfamiliar ad-hoc network—even if the name sounds genuine. Hackers can change the name of their network to anything they want, including the name of the legitimate Internet connection offered by the airport.

Just because it has the same name as the Wi-Fi advertised in the airport, don't believe it. Double-check!

• Make sure your computer is not set up to automatically connect to non-preferred networks. Otherwise your computer could automatically connect to the hacker's network without your knowledge.

• Turn off file sharing when you're on the road to prevent hackers from stealing entire documents, files and unencrypted e-mail from your computer.

Stay safe out there!