You Know Where You Are...

GUNS N' FUCKING ROSES

closed out the Video Music Awards tonight!

I've been waiting since my freshman year in college...

His voice was off on the old songs (Welcome and Paradise) but he sounded sweet on the new one (Madagascar)...

He ended the 3-song medley by saying "Round 1"...

I'm like a kid again...

Hey Arnold,

I was walking down Broadway this evening, making my way toward the Broadway/Lafayette Station, and this older Vietnamese gentleman taps me on the back as I walk by Tower Records...

It was Nhan.

I worked with him in the performance group I used to be a part of, yet I don't know if I could honestly call him anything more than an acquaintance. However, he was always a sweet man, and though I am the poster child for misanthropy (not to mention the father of evil), I felt it would be more awkward if I didn't stand there and chat for a little bit.

(I'm sure the feeling was mutual.)

He was waiting for his niece. He'd just come back from North (South?) Carolina, for work. Work had been keeping him from really participating in the affairs of the aforementioned performance group.

He asked me about C. I told him she was fine. That she's going to grad school this fall. That she's pursuing theater. He expressed his confidence that she'll do well because she's "really good".

He asked me what I was up to. I muttered something about making movies.

His niece showed up. A young, female version of him. Nose, eyes and all. We suffered an awkward introduction, since I made the mistake of overstaying the small talk.

Then, as awkward as it began, I smiled and excused myself.

Dear You,

Editing my short, slow but steady...

Started writing a new feature-length script that I vow to sell for some magic beans...

Trying to teach C how to say "no" to her parents... or at least "not right now"...

Brian Kohn is a big baby. Not that anyone knows who that is -- or will ever know who that is. Some people are doomed to die in anonymity.

People disappoint me time and time again. I make my way through the world, quietly judging...

Dear Abyss,

We shot another third of my short film this past Saturday night into Sunday mourn. Started at about 8pm, ended around 5:00am. But we got the scene in the can.

Theoretically, then, I have 2/3rds of it complete. However, I'm going back and reshooting a good portion of the first scene we shot. Test markets dictated a shift of tone...

Regardless, it is going well.

If anybody out there needs some low-cost, good-quality videography, leave a comment. I'll do shows, reels, publicity tapes, bar mitzvahs, bachelor parties, snuff films and weddings.

Monday, I despise thee...

Dear Fish,

I like how I can get 20 comments on one post, but they're all from 2 people.

(Not to depreciate those two people!)

I think the pond/fish metaphor of my last post may have been misinterpreted.

I want a crossover audience.

I want to create my own clique, and help take them out of the ghetto with me.

I know it's an arrogant statement and what have I got to show for it?, but I am working on things, and when the time is right they'll be revealed.

I've seen too many people fail, and for good reasons.

Ich bin ein auslander...

Every so often -- through one provocation or another -- I get real bitter about the so-called "asian american" ghetto -- er, I mean *community* we operate in.

I hate this ghetto. I loathe this ghetto. With every last stitch of my soul.

I understand I'm still a nobody -- even within the marginalized confines of this backwater community -- but I've got my eye trained on my escape. And I know it just sounds like a lot of posturing and chest-beating -- and to a certain extent, that's all it can be at this point -- but I am dead serious about getting out of here. The streets are paved with all the mediocrity this community produces. All the spineless and childish and insincere that serve as BIG FISH in this SMALL POND. It sickens me.

Every so often, it bothers me. But I have to put it aside and remember my focus.

My focus on an exit...

Dear New World,

"Lemonade" kicked some major butt Friday night, and I'm not just blowing sunshine up people's yahoos!

I was dreadfully proud of C...

Finished editing the video of it last night, after I got back from Dave's birthday pool party. The video looks *good*...

The world is beginning to open up again.

Another day, another squalor.

Dusted off an old script idea that I shoved into the shadows a while back. Found a way to make it work, in this post-911 world. I'm actually fairly jazzed about it now. Looking forward to writing it... and talking about it...

Cable guy came today -- to install some extra boxes into our apt. He took one look around, proclaimed it was "a boarding room house -- NOT AN APARTMENT!!!" and stormed out in a huff. What a dickhead. Why can't Time Warner hire some decent people to install cable, instead of these fresh-off-the-boat longshoremen?

Oh yeah, because they're a monopoly.

(And don't tell me RCN is competition. RCN can kiss my Filipino grits.)