Life of Le

Coco's condition, accepting donation$ for her surgery!

2011-07-30T03:16:00.000-07:00

So this all started on July 1 when I went to shoot an interview with someone in San Bernardino. He said he had a backyard/kennel area for dogs so I brought Coco with me. It was really hot that day. The yard fence had an opening where Coco could've slipped out, so I tied her up in a corner of shade and left a bowl of water there. I ended up interviewing/talking with the guy for over 2 hours. When I came back out, the shade had completely moved, but the guy's family had just untied her and were watering her down. She definitely was heat exhausted. It was as we left that she started acting weird. She screamed when we touched her in certain areas (I thought we just pulled her leg too hard when we were drying her up). She was also REALLY tired and disinterested in anything, including food she normally gets really excited about. I still just thought she was burned out from being in the sun for the past few hours.

But her exhaustion and screaming (when you touched her certain places) continued, so on Monday 4th of July, I took her to the emergency hospital for an X-ray, which came back with nothing out of the ordinary.

The following days, her wounds developed mostly in the areas where she was reacting to pain. It started as a pinch of a hole where it seemed like a little bit of hair fell off. Then pus was coming out of this area over the week. So I took her to the vet down the street since it was close and they accept CareCredit (a medical care credit card service). They shaved the area with the pus and after looking at the skin, the vet said it was most likely a really bad sunburn. They ran a fecal test which produced nothing out of the ordinary as well. So the vet put her on antibiotics and gave me some cream. At this point, the wounds looked like dark, thick, hardened skin (basically dead skin) which slowly was peeling off and underneath was raw tissue that was not closed or healed yet. After 2 more visits where the wounds were clearly getting worse, the vet refers me back to a surgeon (back at the emergency hospital).

The surgeon there says he's never seen a sunburn like that. He said it could also be some sort of bite infection or something toxic or really hot got poured or pressed against her. He recommended a $3000 surgery to pull nearby skin to close up the main wound. I said no since that was way outta my budget, so he just gave me more antibiotics. This was a good decision as well since that surgery would've only treated the symptom, not the problem. And the problem was indeed growing. In addition to the main wound where dead skin was peeling off, more spots are popping up all over her body. They are starting the same way: small pieces of hair falling off, skin hardening, falling off, raw bloody, pus tissue underneath.

So my friend recommends another clinic to me. I go there and their fees are way cheaper, which was the first positive sign. The vet is also baffled, but he suggests a biopsy to take skin samples from the various degrees of wounds. He can't think of any other way to find out what the disease is. I already blew nearly $1000 at the first two hospitals, both of which turned out to be mostly useless. I'm hoping my intuitions are right about this third place and that their surgery will at least tell me what's wrong with Coco so we can figure out a plan from there. The biopsy will cost nearly $700.

I've started an account on Chipin to raise funds to help pay for it. I think you need a PayPal acct, so if you don't have one but would like to donate, let me know and we'll work something out. Otherwise, go to this page and click the link on the right column. Any amount will be greatly appreciated!!!! Thank you!!!

2011 New Yrs Resolutions

2010-12-28T02:31:00.000-08:00

Dear God,

I'll promise to stop going around looking for a girl who's down to hook up in a confessional booth if you'll just let me accomplish these three simple things in 2011.

1) Pay my friend the money I owe him for damages done to his backyard by my crazy ass dog. That's right, neither of us could've ever imagined that a cute little pug would be capable of such destruction and disaster. I mean look at her, lying there looking all innocent n' shit!!!

But inside, she's a fucking devil, a straight terror!!!!! My friend calls her Paris Hilton now (cuz the bitch goes after the expensive stuff), though I think the recklessness of Lindsay Lohan would make a more fitting nickname.

2) Finish my documentary on the 14th annual dance massive Electric Daisy Carnival. Teens, drugs, death - nothing out of the ordinary as far as what you hear about raves in the news. The promising thing is that LA County has been working with electronic music advocates to come up with safety regulations for all future events.

Last week, however, San Francisco Assemblywoman Fiona Ma decided to propose a bill to ban raves from all public venues in CA. Such a bill would basically render all the work LA County has been doing obsolete, and also overshadow my film on the LA rave scene with a rather shitty ending. She has since decided to put the bill on hold. We can probably thank the thousands of people who spoke out against her efforts for that one, including Senator Leland Yee.

Damn, it's like a battle of the Asian politicians. Maybe I should run for office too. I wonder what my campaign would be like...

3) Become a writer at Intervention? Yeah right, who knows. Here's the release of my last assignment. There were so many corrections and negative feedback on my work but I'm just gonna keep chuggin' along like the lil' engine that could. Either that, or I'll give up and go back to my old job...

And here are a few goals I had set before that little monster I call my dog sent me into debt. Oh well, I guess there's always 2012...

1) Buy my own camera. Cuz I will only last so long borrowing from friends and work.
2) Go to Switzerland. Why? This is why.
3) I'm also due for a trip to the motherland. Haven't been back since Feb '06 before my grandma passed away. She's probably staring down at me right now, laying upon me that elderly Asian guilt.

Asian Men in Sports & Entertainment

2010-11-19T22:01:00.000-08:00

This list summarizes my observations of the increasing visibility, participation, and success of Asian men in sports and entertainment popular with Americans.

ACTORS: John Cho, Daniel Dae Kim, and more
There are now more Asian male leading roles in TV and feature films than ever before.

BASEBALL: Major League drafts from Japan & Korea
There has been a surge of this in the United States in recent years.

BASKETBALL: Yao Ming

Currently the tallest player in the NBA, Yao Ming was selected by the Houston Rockets as the first overall pick in the 2002 draft, and has since been selected to start for the Western Conference in the NBA All-Star Game in each of his first seven seasons, and has been named to the All-NBA Team five times. His rookie year in the NBA was the subject of a documentary film, The Year of the Yao, and he co-wrote, along with NBA analyst Ric Bucher, an autobiography titled Yao: A Life in Two Worlds.

BOXING: Manny Pacquiao

Raised under poverty in the Filipino ghetto and trained with a kick-boxing background, Pacquiao went pro at the age of 17 and KOed his way to being the first boxer in history to win ten world titles in eight different weight divisions. He was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 2000's by the Boxing Writers Association of America and The Ring "Fighter of the Year" in 2006, 2008 and 2009.

DANCING: America's Best Dance Crew
The abundance of Asian faces on the winners of this competition reality series speaks for itself.

DANCING: Planet B-Boy

This 2007 documentary directed by Benson Lee was a box office hit that proved that another arena of hip-hop dominated by Asian guys is break-dancing. Between the roots of hip-hop in New York and the annual world b-boy battle in Germany lies countries such as Japan and Korea, both of which have brought out teams that have soared to the top of the championships within a matter of a few years.

ELECTRO: DJ Steve Aoki

Perhaps the most well-known Asian-American electronic DJ, Aoki is a self-made success story. Founding his own label just a year out of high school, his remix and production work since then has dominated charts in Europe and North America. A household name among young people in Los Angeles, he regularly plays for crowds of up to a hundred thousand fans.

FILM: Ang Lee

Born and raised in Taiwan, Lee received his MFA in film-making from New York University. After Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominations for The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman, he directed Sense & Sensibility in 1995. His critical & award recognition and box office success grew from there with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain. In 2006, Brokeback Mountain scored a leading eight Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Director, which Lee won. He is the first Asian and non-Caucasian director to do so.

HIP-HOP: DJ Q-bert

Raised in the Filipino-American community of Daly City, California, Q-bert learned to scratch at the age of 15. His teacher was Mix Master Mike, and together they would eventually battle their way through the World DMC Championships, becoming the most influential artists in the history of turntablism. Q-bert is universally regarded as the greatest scratch DJ of all time.

HIP-HOP & ELECTRO: Far East Movement

Just a few years ago, Kev Nish, Prohgress, and J-Splif were merely three guys from Koreatown with not much more than a mixtape released. Today, they have a fourth member (DJ Virman), have toured with the likes of Lady GaGa, and have shot to number one on iTunes and the Billboards with their single "Like a G6." Having roots in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Filipino ancestry, the boys of FM represent the first Asian-American artists to top U.S. pop charts.

REALITY TV: Jon Gosselin

What started as an unexpected tale about the miracles of love and family turned into a reality TV cliche full of dysfunction and on-screen train-wrecks. Across multiple seasons, Gosselin played the full gamut from devoted husband & hard working father to the cheating player who gets separated and leaves the burden of raising eight children to his wife. For better or for worse, his image has had a wide influence on America. In its 5th season debut, for example, Jon & Kate Plus 8 raked in nearly 10 million viewers for the TLC network.

SINGING: Lin Yu Chun

Sporting a bow tie and a bowl-shaped haircut, this 23-year-old kid in Taiwan delightfully surprised the world with his performance of "I Will Always Love You." He went from being a weekly reality competitor to being an international Youtube sensation. The video of his performance generated millions of views within a matter of days, resulting in his first trip to America to appear and sing on The Ellen DeGeneres and Lopez Tonight shows. Later that year, he released his first album on Sony Music and performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at an LA Dodgers game.

UFC: BJ Penn

With training grounds at his place of birth in the Hawaiian islands and the recent addition of Chinese acupuncture to his health regime, BJ Penn can attribute his former UFC Lightweight Championship and UFC Welterweight Championship to plenty of hard work and dedication. Penn has stated that he identifies strongly with his Korean roots and has traveled to Korea to hold seminars. He also said that he gets his hot temper from his Korean side which helps him use this energy in his fights.

UFC: Nam Phan

At the time of this writing, this Vietnamese-American kid from Garden Grove, California is still a qualifying competitor on The Ultimate Fighter, a reality series about pro mixed martial artists aspiring to sign with the UFC. Phan proudly displays both the American and South Vietnamese flag on his gi as a symbol of his pride in the freedom of his current home and of his lost homeland.

The State of Raves in 2010

2010-11-18T12:51:00.000-08:00

I just turned 31, and ten yrs ago, you'd find me covered in kandy dancing the night away inside speakers that were taller than I was. Actually, a few years back, I was still doing that, just without the kandy. More recently, I can't say I've been much of a raver at all. Indeed, I'm getting old! And my motivation to get dressed up and go out all the time seems to have dwindled alongside the interest of the news media towards raves. Before 2010, the last major incident and corresponding media coverage surrounding raves in America would have been the crackdown of an outdoor gathering near Salt Lake City in which law enforcers used helicopters, K-9s, and even machine guns to storm in on nonviolent, unarmed ravers.

Footage of the raid aired on TV segments about the police's controversial response to the event. For all the civil rights violations endured by Salt Lake youths that night, no similar crackdowns followed. Instead, the incident brought members of the Salt Lake rave community closer together, and their scene has actually continued to flourish without much disruption from authorities or attention from news stations. That was in the fall of 2005, and this uninterrupted growth was felt in rave scenes everywhere...

Until this year. During my kandy raving days in Oakland, California, Skills was a small production crew that gathered, at most, a few thousand kids at their events. After 1999, when Oakland city officials stopped giving out permits to rave promoters, Skills moved their business across the Bay and spent the next decade fostering a relationship with San Francisco police, venue owners, and the good folks at City Hall, essentially saving the Bay Area rave scene through its leadership in putting on parties of all sizes at various locations in SF.

However, with the tainted reputation of raves as far as drug abuse is concerned, it only takes one tragedy to threaten a career backed by years of hard work. That tragedy occurred during Pop 2010, held at the Cow Palace, and made up the first two reported deaths associated with any Skills event. What followed - cancellations of parties that Skills had scheduled for the upcoming months, as well as the banning of raves by the Cow Palace - shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the history of how venue owners and government officials typically react after lives have been lost or harmed at a rave.

Pop was held on the last weekend of May, and by the end of the summer, Skills' unsuccessful attempts at keeping their events alive were no longer rooted merely in the unfortunate fatalities in San Francisco over Memorial Day weekend. Inside an overcrowded street tunnel thousands of miles overseas, at least 20 electronic music fans were crushed to death while trying to maneuver their way around Germany's annual summer Love Parade.

The event organizers swiftly announced the discontinuation of Love Parade, out of respect for the victims' families, ending a 21-year era of the largest dance festival in the world. Back in San Francisco, Skills and other local crews had their own electronic parade and festival, started in 2004 and based on the original gathering in Germany, scheduled for October. With renewed concerns over overdoses and crowd control, San Francisco's version of the Love Parade simply did not end up taking place.

None of this should sound foreign to those of you in Los Angeles. Indeed, the LA rave scene has been associated with more problems in 2010 than in any other recent year, and the negative attention has been centered around a single event: Electric Daisy Carnival.

On top of the standard fear against raves and drugs, several factors helped pull EDC into the spotlight this year:

- The popularity and immensity of EDC. Capacity reached 185,000 over the course of the two-day event. No other music gathering in North America has drawn a crowd of this size.

- LA news media and its inclination towards shocking and entertaining stories, more so than news media in any other part of the United States.

- The plethora of videos immediately posted on Youtube depicting ravers jumping and rushing their way onto the Coliseum field and main dance floor. These images, captured outdoors in broad daylight, became every news producer's dream come true during a rush to convey how dangerous and out of control EDC was.

- The young age of the girl who died. The two victims at Pop were in their early 20s, but EDC's fatality consisted of a 15-year-old, and the significance of this tragic detail outweighed the statistical triviality of one person losing their life at an event of nearly 200,000.

The panic and urgency which circulated in the media, in City and County meetings, and on rave internet forums during the days after EDC has passed. So the question is whether rational and balanced dialogue is taking place now as to what we're all going to do to keep both raves and the young people who attend them alive and healthy.

To that extent, I must say that LA is one strange place run by a rather bizarre political body. At the time of this writing, the County is proposing to shut down all its medical cannabis dispensaries. In a nutshell, the LA region earned the title of medical cannabis capital of America, beating out even cities like Oakland where the first dispensaries were founded in the late 90s.

But LA achieved this through the quantity, not quality, of its dispensaries. With the scores of shops popping up in violation of County ordinances and licensing policies, officials have failed to enforce the very regulations that they created. Instead of owning up and learning from this failure, LA County apparently would rather just ban all dispensaries altogether.

I only hope that our local government isn't as sloppy with rave policies as they are with medical cannabis co-ops. The LA Coliseum panel, made up of civil servants representing the city and county, recently voted to allow raves to take place at the venue again. Their rationale was announced as satisfaction with new measures that have been implemented at the remainder of Coliseum raves this year. But let's examine the economic factors:

- It's hard to discontinue an event that just brought in more than $10 million. We're talking ticket sales here, and this is a very conservative estimate. The paycheck written out to the Coliseum for providing the site of EDC was reportedly six figures. The Cow Palace in San Francisco made a different choice. The ban of raves will cost the venue, which is already in debt, tens of thousands in lost revenue.

- Banning raves from LA County won't put much of a dent in the scene. Underground parties operate illegally anyway. Electronic shows take place at 18+ and 21+ clubs in Hollywood and abroad almost every single night of the week. And above all, San Bernadino County has several venues which hosts raves too, including the National Orange Show Event Center which is even bigger than Exposition Park in LA (the site of the Coliseum). Unlike fans in the Bay Area, which has now become limited to the city of San Francisco as far as permitted raves and massives are concerned, Los Angeles ravers and promoters have alternative options if events aren't allowed within their county.

- Any attempts to get rid of raves, especially massives, will be challenged in the court of law. This can and has already happened. Someone who's capable of hosting an annual multi-million dollar event surely can afford a good attorney to help protect that event.

What everyone needs to realize is that what's at stake here isn't just a party getting shut down. Twenty years ago, your biggest concern was the cops showing up, telling the DJ to turn the music off, and then sending a few hundred kids home. You merely had your single evening ruined. Today, people's entire careers are on the line. Technology has shifted and advanced. Vinyl shops have closed down due to the emergence of digital mixing. People curious about the effects of ecstasy can find out what they need in a matter of seconds on Google or Wikipedia. iPhones allowed those shocking images of fence-jumpers and gate crashers at EDC to be captured ever so clearly, and Youtube allowed them to be publicized to the world right away. Indeed, the culture and industry of raves are now part of a larger, more intricate web of music, drugs, politics, money, and media, and it's up to all of us to keep each other free of entanglement so this web doesn't implode.

15 Visually Groundbreaking Films Since Star Wars

2010-11-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

Star Wars trilogy (1977-1983)

Blade Runner (1982)

The NeverEnding Story (1984)

Legend (1985)

Jurassic Park (1993)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Toy Story (1995)

Independence Day (1996)

The Fifth Element (1997)

What Dreams May Come (1998)

The Matrix (1999)

The Cell (2000)

The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003)

Final Fantasy (2001)

Finding Nemo (2003)

Transformers (2007)

Avatar (2009)

A light bulb!

2010-10-22T20:49:00.000-07:00

So it's a full moon this weekend, which makes tonight the perfect night for bright ideas! As most of you know, I moved to LA to pursue a documentary film-making career. Before relocating, I had posted Myspace blogs on two of my ideas for a feature documentary. One of them, which we'll call Reprezent, is about Asian-American hip-hop culture. The other, Cover Girls, is about the portrayal of white female victims in violent crime news reporting. I also kept a second blog for Cover Girls. If you read the blog for Reprezent, you'll see that the list of folks I was interested in covering included the trio Far East Movement, three guys from LA who had nothing more than a mix tape out at the time I wrote that blog. You'll also see that they somehow found this webpage and were the first ones to comment on it. So from that, I ended up meeting their manager and even working at their office for a brief period. Eventually, I got my job at Intervention and they ended up adding a fourth member and releasing albums, the latest one of which includes iTune's current # 1 most downloaded track "Like a G6." They're the first Asian-American artists to top the iTunes charts.

My vision for the kind of film Reprezent or Cover Girls would be is huge, so I never thought they'd be projects I'd be able to get off the ground until I secure hundreds of thousands in funding. So lately, I've been focusing on smaller format projects such as videos for the web or short documentaries. I'm fortunate enough to be able to borrow the cameras at Intervention, and also to have a friend who is willing to shoot with his camera. I am working at a turtle's pace since I can only shoot and edit on my free time, but it's still manageable.

One of the projects I recently shot on a whim was the meetup of members of HalfKorean.com. My friend Mike told me about it since he and his girlfriend were gonna go. Mike is half-Vietnamese, Sue-Na is half-white, and they're both half-Korean. I once asked them if I could shoot them as part of a reality show on half-Korean dating. I think they said no, but that night, Mike was nice enough to suggest that I come to the meetup the next afternoon and film it. My schedule was open so I said, "Sure, why not!" And the rest is history! These guys were two of the people I ended up interviewing at the meetup.

On the left is Rakaa of the hip-hop crew Dilated Peoples, whose members also include Filipino turntablist DJ Babu. On the right is Carlos, one of the pioneering MC's of the Korean hip-hop group Uptown.

It has been almost a week since I filmed at this meetup, and it only occurred to me tonight that through my work that day, I technically shot my first two interviews for Reprezent. It's quite possible that I have enough resources and subjects in California that I can launch and complete a feature documentary without waiting for someone to fund me. I would still only be able to work on it during my free time since I'll have to keep a job. So it would take probably years to complete, but at least it wouldn't be entirely out of reach! I'm excited!

10 Underrated Films from the Past 20 Yrs

2010-09-18T23:47:00.000-07:00

Bigger, Stronger, Faster (2008)
Nominated for Grand Jury Prize at Sundance
Zero Oscar Nominations
Budget N/A
$308,000 Sales at U.S. Box Offices

Children of Men (2006)
Nominated for Best Editing, Best Cinematography, and Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars
$76,000,000 Budget
$35,500,000 + Sales at U.S. Box Offices

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
Zero Oscar Nominations
$30,00,000 Budget
$40,400,000+ Sales at U.S. Box Offices

Control Room (2004)
Winner and Nominee of various awards
Zero Oscar Nominations
Budget N/A
$2,500,00+ Sales at U.S. Box Offices

The Animatrix (2003)
Straight-to-DVD release

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
Zero Oscar Nominations
$137,000,000 Estimated Budget
$32,131,830 Sales at U.S. Box Offices

The Cell (2000)
Nominated for Best Makeup Oscar
$33,000,000 Budget
$61,334,059 Sales at U.S. Box Offices

What Dreams May Come (1998)
Winner of Best Visual Effects Oscar
Also Nominated for Best Art Direction
$85,000,000 Budget
$55,000,000+ Sales at U.S. Box Offices

Baraka (1992)
Zero Oscar Nominations
$4,000,000 Budget
$1,200,000+ Sales at U.S. Box Offices

Barton Fink (1991)
Nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Best Art Direction, and Best Costume Design Oscars
$9,000,000 Budget
$6,000,000 Sales at U.S. Box Offices

My summer 2010 review

2010-09-10T01:17:00.001-07:00

Hi friends and family,

I guess I don't write as much anymore, but when you're bored and broke, there's not much else to do. So how about some highlights from my summer of 2010!!??

BEGINNING OF THE END FOR ME

July 31: Annie finally got hitched! See how beautiful my sister looks in that dress! Despite that smile on my face, I wasn't exactly thinking about how happy I was for her. What was really on my mind was, "Fuck, how many more fucking people today are gonna fucking ask me the same fucking question of when I'm gonna fucking get fucking married!!!!?????" We're Chinese = double Fuck! I'm the only boy = triple Fuck! I'm the youngest = quadruple Fuck! Yes, all my sisters are already married = I'm losing count of all these Fucks!

SHIT HITS THE FAN AT EDC

June 25 & 26: Electric Daisy Carnival, annual dance festival. 100,000+ in attendance. 300+ injuries and medical emergencies. One alleged ecstasy-related fatality. I didn't attend this year, but I feel like I practically did. It's been on my mind all summer since I've been working on a short documentary about it. And you can blame that on…

DIVORCED BUT STILL SLEEPING TOGETHER

Actually I used to be married. To DanceSafe, that is. It was fun. I got to go to raves and festivals and conferences all the time. I got to manage dozens of volunteers over the years. I got to be in the news several times. But I just couldn't commit to the relationship anymore. So I left the bitch and moved to LA. We stopped talking for a while, obviously, but then we hooked back up and now I'm shooting an online documentary series for her website.

SPAYED MAH BABY, AND THEN SENT HER OFF!!!

For those of you who've met Coco, you know what a lil' ho she is, always trying to get up in everybody. She's even worse around other dogs. There was no way I was gonna risk her getting knocked up and having to pay child $upport for a puppy born out of wedlock. Anyway yeah so I got her fixed on 4th of July wkd. With that said, I’m becoming a much better uncle than I am a daddy because I recently sent her to stay with my friend’s family for an indefinite period of time (maybe a year). The new benefits for her will be that she’ll have a lawn to run around on, another dog to play with, and people watching her 24/7. The drawbacks will be, well actually, there are no drawbacks for her. In fact, she’s probably gonna forget who I am by the time I visit her or take her to her next vet check-up. But on the bright side…

I’M MOVING TO DA WESTSIDE, BITCHES!!!!

My friend and I found a great deal for a two-bedroom, two-bath apt in Venice. 3rd flr with a balcony. No pets allowed but it’s two miles from the beach! I should be all moved into the new pad by the end of this month!

Compliments from Women

2010-05-08T11:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, these are real comments ladies have made to me. Quoted word for word. I will add more as they keep coming.

September 2007, A girl I met up with once whose name I forgot:
"Wow you're so short in real life. But you sounded tall over the phone."

September 2008, Stephanie:
"When I first read Le's email posts, I thought he was a lesbian scholar."

January 2010, Nicole:
I say, "I'm kind of a ho when it comes to writing." To which Nicole responds, "at least ur an INTERESTING ho."

January 2010: Mary:
"I am completely dead down there. I swear in a year, I'll be inviting you to my pussy funeral," says Mary. "But I'm not even close to your pussy," says Le. "It's okay," says Mary. "You're like a friend of the family."

May 2010, Sarah:
"WOW!!!! You were right! It does flow like jizz down a girls throat the way you write!"

I got a puppy!

2010-03-12T16:34:00.001-08:00

Yes it's true, for those of you who don't know: I've officially become a baby daddy! Now I've lived with dogs before, but I've never had an interest in them, or any pets for that matter. So this has been another one of those impulsive decisions for me. You can blame my friend Joey for this.

Last month, Joey bought a Boston terrier (rather impulsively, as well) and since I was going down to Santa Monica to hang out with him a lot, the three of us spent quite a bit of time together. Oh the puppy attracted a lot of chicks. Unfortunately, seeing two guys walking near the beach with a puppy only made all of them think that Joey and I were a gay couple.

In any case, after just a few days, I had certainly fallen in love, and I wanted some action of my own!

So a week later, I went to see a family whose pug had just shit out these three little critters.

She was the last one still available. Between her sad puppy face and my chinky ass eyes, it was love at first sight.

Another week passed and she was ready to be taken home with me. I named her Coco. Almost immediately, everyone wanted dibs on my girl. For example, this is what my friend Jovon and I texted to each other later that night...

Mar 7, 2010 9:00:28 PM
Are you with the beautiful Coco...where are you guys?

Mar 7, 2010 9:02:39 PM
Well I'm eating and left her at my friend's.

Mar 7, 2010 9:16:24 PM
You left your baby...your worst then my ghetto ass mom

Mar 7, 2010 9:17:00 PM
Sheeeeeit, a jigga gotta eat!

Mar 7, 2010 9:18:05 PM
Is that what you say when you abandon your child...I'm so embarassed

Mar 7, 2010 9:19:31 PM
Bitch u keep fussing and u won't get to see her!

Mar 7, 2010 9:25:17 PM
You can't keep me from my baby!

Mar 7, 2010 9:26:24 PM
Your baby!? Bitch u ain't paid no child $upport!!!

That's right y'all: she's all mine!!! So back off, buhahaha!!!!

She loves climbing into my legs to dig or snuggle when I sit on the floor.

This was at my friend's place. I might set up a mirror at my apt since Coco seems to love playing in front of the mirror.

I carry her out around the neighborhood every morning. She's still too young to be exposed to other dogs and walking on the ground.

She's always crawling in dark, tiny spaces.

Coco already has more toys than I never did growing up. When I was a boy, all I had to play with was a tin container of hand-me-down Legos. I actually used them to build Transformers robots since my parents couldn't buy me real Transformers. How sad. Well, maybe now I can give my baby girl all the opportunities I never had. *pouts *cries*

Seven yrs ago...

2010-02-05T17:45:00.000-08:00

Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. Early on in the film, Ellsberg narrates about a moment around 1964 or '65, saying that the Vietnam war would go on for 11 yrs. Of course, this wasn't news to me. But my feeling about that conflict as such a long and treacherous one was what led me to this revelation: it was March of 2003 when I was a film student, in college and actively participating in political activism, civil disobedience, and ultimately one of the first protesters to get arrested on the streets of San Francisco the morning after Bush declared the beginning of the Iraq war. Let me reiterate: 2-0-0-3!!!! It's friggin' 2010 now! Seven yrs ago, I never would've guessed I'd still be here whining about Iraq.

Of course, the film invoked such whining precisely because we're only a few yrs away from surpassing Vietnam. So what would have my experience of seeing Most Dangerous Man been like if it had come out much sooner? Certainly, its content probably wouldn't have differed much since it captures a past event. And the doc would still have been amongst a sea of others this last decade covering American military campaigns old and new. But co-director Rick Goldsmith was in the house and one of the first things he discussed was his team's concern about the film's relevance to the state of the nation by the time the film is released. What if the related problems will have been resolved by then? What if we will have withdrawn all troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq? Well this didn't end up happening, which has been - in Rick's fine terms - "good for the filmmakers, bad for the country."

If I had seen Most Dangerous Man in 2003, that "11 yrs" bite certainly would not have disrupted me for hrs as it did last night. Rather, the doc would've functioned as ammunition for the passion and hope I carried at that time in my life. Although that passion and hope resemble the energy shared by Vietnam protesters in the '60s, I would not have given much thought to the fact that those protesters continued fighting for over a decade because at that point, I couldn't have imagined myself ending up in the same boat. So today, this piece of work has quite a different meaning for me. You can say I'm able to appreciate the history lesson a lot more: the lesson being that if the problems have not gone away or gotten any smaller, there's no reason to assume that the solutions are any easier to come by today than in decades past.

Unfortunately, I couldn't squeeze my thoughts in on the Q&A, so I thought I'd post my rant here. Thx for reading.

Food, piers, and karaoke!

2010-01-31T11:11:00.000-08:00

It's the second month of 2010 and I'm still broke. For that, you can thank the holidays, my car insurance and registration bills, and the stripper who charged me for a lap dance when I thought she was just stretching her legs in front of me the whole time. Yeah people screw ya over, so to make up for it, we have to watch our spending and just kinda stay home some days. For me, Saturday was not one of those days.

Saturday, high noon, sitting at home watching a 2008 Youtube video of Bill Maher describing McCain and Palin as Maverick & the MILF, eventually realizing I'm running late for lunch. An hour later, I meet my friend and together, we betray our WWII-era ancestors (I'm Chinese, he's Korean) by having lunch at a Japanese joint... sorry grandpa, their food is the shit!

Well actually, my friend is only half-Korean, and so is his girlfriend (it must be some sort of half-Korean conspiracy). Anyway, while slurping through our bowls of noodles like we're digging for gold, he tells me that she wants to conduct a sociological xxxperiment with him via a reverse date: reverse as in the gender roles, meaning she picks him up, chooses the restaurant, pays for everything, and uses her empty wallet at the end of the night to guilt trip him into giving up that ass. Any girlfriend who can cum up with such an idea is a keeper.

So after lunch, we pick her up. They live in the semi-suburban community of Gardena and Torrance, located in the South Bay of LA County. A few miles west are the beach towns of Redondo and Manhattan. While driving over there, we debate the slanted nature of my friend's eyes. His girlfriend agrees that they're chinky, but being the politically correct individual that I am, I remind her that he's Korean, not Chinese, so the proper term would be kinky, not chinky. This conversation also functions as more proof that he's a slut and won't put off putting out on their reverse date.

Before we torture him further, we arrive at the Redondo Pier and start walking around. Our first stop is what his girlfriend crowns as the most ghetto arcade you'll ever find in your life. An attribute for this claim might be the fact that the selection of fighting games is as geriatric as:

Mortal Kombat

Killer Instinct

Street Fighter 2

You have to be old enough to rent a car to remember these games. No wait, the Street Fighter 2 is the Championship Edition which actually bumps it up to 1992!!!! That's right: nothing but the latest and greatest at the Redondo Pier!!! In any case, we finish playing arcades and return outside, going from ghetto to gorgeous...

By this time, we've been discussing another field test of theirs in the works: the $30 date. His girlfriend also wants to find out if a couple can spend a cheap, fun evening together without feeling like teenagers who should be asking for more allowance. Maybe a good place to go on such a date is the next item on our agenda: happy hour at Max Karaoke in Torrance. This is the Asian style of karaoke in which you and your friends rent out a private room [necessary clarification for my white readers]. We stay there for two hrs and I end up paying just a little over $10 to sing my heart out to tracks such as:

Alphaville, Forever Young
Cyndi Lauper, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Guns n' Roses, Sweet Child O' Mine
Madonna, Crazy for You

To prove that I'm not stuck in the 80's (and that I have some street credibility), I also throw in Lil' Wayne's A Milli, though I fail to rap past the first verse because the lyrics turn out to be totally different from the ones I'm used to. Who the #@%& came up with a clean version of this track anyway?

After karaoke, we head to Manhattan Beach and have dinner at Mama D's, an Italian eatery that's been voted number one in the local papers for a decade. I can't keep my eyes off of this blond waitress. Somehow, we miss her and all the other waitresses and instead get served by a Mexican dude named Ramone. Just my luck, but he is nice and brings us some amazing dishes. I order bow tie pasta with chicken, mushroom, and spinach in a creamy dijon sauce (I think I just jizzed in my pants writing that). Indeed, the meal is orgasmic, and the half-Koreans decide to grab dessert across the street at Manhattan Beach Creamery.

We then proceed down the street to the pier. Small waves are crashing against the shore. Light is reflecting heavily off the water because it's a full moon. Everything is absolutely beautiful, and the half-Koreans are now thinking to themselves, "Why the fuck are we eating cold ass ice cream while walking near the beach at 9 o' clock on a January night?" So we don't stay long. They drive me back to my car and we say our goodbyes, making sure to keep in touch about their xxxperiment. While waiting for our table at dinner, I had them clarify that their reverse date and their $30 date will be two different events, and that neither will be for Valentine's. They have given me full permission to write on their findings, although a pitch to film the process and produce a pilot for a half-Korean reality dating show is firmly denied. Oh well, ya win some, ya lose some.

I hop in my car and drive about twenty minutes north to Culver City, home of Sony Pictures Studios. Across the street from the studio lot is a small establishment known as Backstage Bar & Grill where Mustache Girl is hosting a going-away party. I met her at a Halloween party in 2008.

She moved to LA seven years ago for school and work, but has not been able to find a job since graduating in July, so she's packing her bags and moving back home with her parents in Dallas.

What I say to her: "Times are tough right now for everyone. You tried your best and learned a lot about yourself because of it. Now you'll get to be closer to your family again and eventually move onto bigger and better things that were meant to be!"

What I actually think: "Damn I hope I last longer than you did in LA. I'd kill myself if I had to live with my parents again. But at least I'm not from Texas!"

Early on in the night, I contemplate how long I would really stay because I hardly know anyone there. Slowly but surely, other friends trickle in, including my co-worker and his girl for the evening who knows even less people than I do (namely, nobody except my co-worker). So she and I rely on each other to stand awkwardly quiet with. Apparently, she met my co-worker online and is hanging out with him for the first time.

What I say to her: "I love that guy. He's the most hard-working and honest person I know. He's such a nice guy and totally fun to be around all the time. That's awesome that you two are hanging out. Hope to see you guys together more!"

What I actually think: "If things don't work out between you two, baby you still got me!"

Around this time, I've finally grown the balls to add my name to the karaoke list. Yes this venue features karaoke, but it's the American style where I have to sing in front of everyone there, including strangers. It will be a first for me. I'm about number twenty on the sign-up sheet, so when the opening guitars from Sweet Child O' Mine (the song I picked) blasts through the speakers, I am surprised and happy that my turn is up so quickly. Of course, when I go up there, I see some dude with the mic already starting to sing. Apparently, it's actually his turn and he just switched songs at the last minute. The asshole has stolen my track. My world is shattered.

For the next half hour, I plan and plot on what to do. Friends suggest various alternatives, naming off Aerosmith and other Guns n' Roses songs I've never heard of, only confirming that I'm not as much as of an 80's geek as I claim to be. After much frustration, I default to New Order, specifically Bizarre Love Triangle. When I finally get on the mic, my co-worker and his date give support by coming up and dancing, but not without taking embarrassing pictures of me in action. My turn has come up just in time (shortly before the DJ shut down for the night). Last call is made. As the bar closes and everyone starts to leave, I send Mustache Girl off with big hugs and best wishes. By now, I'm worn out and my voice is mostly gone. But it has happened: I popped my own public karaoke cherry. I guess now I can call myself a true American.

My new favorite spot in LA...

2010-01-06T21:31:00.000-08:00

Monday, January 4, 2010, 11:02PM:
THE SHORT STOP, 1455 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026

LE: So there's the dance room behind us, I guess they only have DJ's on the weekends. Over there is kinda the lounge area with the pool table and photo booth. Wanna go chill over there?
MARY: Nah, I like it here. I'm the sit-at-the-bar type of person.
LE: Oh great, so we're gonna be two single friends sitting at a quiet bar on a Monday night, wallowing in our pains and sorrows.
MARY: Yup, cuz I swear I am totally dead down there.
LE: Whatever! Anyway, how many days you staying?
MARY: I don't know, a few, depends on how much you have to show me.
LE: You're not even gonna give me any time to recover from the holidays, are you?
MARY: Nope! In fact, take me to Dodger Stadium after this. I wanna try to break in.
LE: Okay it's just down the street anyway.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 8:24PM:
BRITE SPOT, 1918 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026

LE: It's kinda funny we're back in Echo Park. The bar we went to last night is down the street.
MARY: Quit trying to change the subject! I was trying to ask you about your ho's.
LE: What ho's?
MARY: Don't you have any prospects? What happened with that girl from New Year's?
LE: Didn't you read my email? She slipped out of my hands.
MARY: Aw, when you tried to profess your love to her?
LE: No, when I tried to grab her ass. She literally slipped out of my hands when I did that.
MARY: Well I don't think it had anything to do with the granny kiss you gave her. I think it was cuz you were competing with a Mua Thai fighter afterward.
LE: I guess so. We've been texting and she says her drunk ass doesn't even remember we kissed.
MARY: Oh my, you got a pic of her?
LE: Yeah, and that's me not doing a very good job at throwing up an LA sign.

LE: So you see she's leaning against Siphal, not me. I think he was trying to pull a reverse SYB on me. I think they all were.
MARY: A reverse SYB?
LE: Yeah, when you think you're gonna SYB someone, but then you get SYB-ed yourself. It's almost like a double interception.
MARY: I thought you don't even like Asian girls.
LE: Sheeeeit, at this point, I'll take whatever I can get.
MARY: Oh.
LE: Wait, don't tell any girls I told you that.
MARY: Okay.
LE: Anyway, let's get the check. There's probably a show starting at 9.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 11:36PM:
iOWEST THEATRE, 6366 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028

MARY: So this rock band guy came up to me outside and asked me for a cigarette.
LE: Yeah there's always Hollywood-type artists and musicians walking around this area. You thought he was hot, eh?
MARY: Yeah but what's the point? Even if I started talking to him, nothing would've happened.
LE: Why not?
MARY: I already told you, I am completely dead down there. In a year, you're probably gonna be attending my pussy funeral.
LE: You'd invite me to your pussy funeral? But I've never even been close with your pussy.
MARY: It's okay. You're like a friend of the family.
LE: Well thanks. That's too bad though. I mean with me, my penis is just coming alive. In fact, I was going to invite you to its baptism.
MARY: Whatever, let's go to another bar.
LE: Oh geez, I'm hosting the Energizer Bunny here.
MARY: You're my ho-st.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 12:55AM:
THE DRAFT, 12430 Riverside Dr., Studio City, CA 91607

LE: Mary, you know what we need to do? Look at that table over there. They're partying their hearts out. From now on, every time we get depressed, just think about people like that. I mean if midgets can be happy, there's no reason you and I can't be.
MARY: But we're only like three inches taller than those midgets.
LE: Bitch, why you gotta shit on my parade like that!!!???

Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 2:13AM:
LE'S HOME, 516 E. Cedar Ave., Burbank, CA 91501

MARY: I'm so excited about the spa.
LE: Me too. When are you gonna drive back to the Bay?
MARY: Probably the day after tomorrow.
LE: So tomorrow will be our last night together. Hmmm, you know, you don't kick in your sleep as much as you said you would.
MARY: Eh, you just got lucky with that. Usually I toss and turn.
LE: No, you've slept in one position the whole time: on your side facing away from me.
MARY: Well yeah, cuz I more than made up for not kicking by farting on you the other night.
LE: Fuck, is that what that was? No wonder I felt so warm all of a sudden.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 8:02PM:
WI SPA, 2700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057

LE: "Oh Clemetine. I could die right here. I'm just so... happy."
MARY: What the fuck are you talking about?
LE: You've never seen Eternal Sunshine?
MARY: I don't know, but even if I have, I wouldn't understand what you were saying.
LE: Mary, why you gotta ruin the moment again?
MARY: What moment?
LE: The moment of chemistry between us. Don't deny it. Our passion is so strong that your face is turning pink and you're sweating all over.
MARY: Le, I'm pink and sweaty because we've been lying in a 140 degree sauna for the past twenty minutes.
LE: Oh yeah, that's right.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 8:35PM:
WI SPA, 2700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057

LE: Aaahhh, I think this is my favorite sauna.
MARY: Me too. I feel like I'm in some magical room.
LE: Do you think that's cuz of the sparkly colorful rocks everywhere, or cuz of the weed cookie we ate an hour ago?

Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 9:29PM:
WI SPA, 2700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057

MARY: This was the only spa in Koreatown I could find that had a co-ed floor, and its own restaurant.
LE: Yup, we can actually hang out together here. Otherwise, I'd be stuck downstairs bathing and showering with elderly Korean men all night.

MARY: I didn't even go in the women's area. I was too paranoid. That cookie got me, damn it!
LE: Oh you missed out. It was so refreshing down there.
MARY: And what's up with all these families? They even have a children's area up here.
LE: You know what I noticed? Besides you and that other white girl and the white guy she's with, and I'm Chinese, everyone here is Korean.
MARY: I knew you would point that out.
LE: Cuz you know I'm a racially conscious individual?
MARY: No, cuz I know you have a fetish for white girls.
LE: Listen, I'm just saying this place is cool cuz you get to be submerged in Korean culture. I mean did you see that big ass shelf they have? There is probably over a thousand comic books on there.
MARY: I don't know why you're so excited about their book selection when neither of us can read Korean. But yeah I know what you mean cuz I can't stop watching these shows on the flatscreens. I'm totally addicted to this drama right now.
LE: Oh yeah that chick is hot.
MARY: Well that's not a chick. That's just a skinny, uber metro Korean guy with long hair.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 10:43PM:
WI SPA, 2700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057

LE: What are you doing? Are you just gonna nap?
MARY: Yeah, indefinitely. It's open 24 hours, so we can spend the whole damn night here if we wanted.
LE: Shit, you're really trying to get your 25 dollars' worth, eh? Fuck I'm so restless. I've been running around this place for the past hour. That cookie got me too.
MARY: What are you eating, another donut? Geez, that's your fourth one.
LE: Yup, I got the munchies! Fuck it, I'm gonna go use the computers, maybe do some writing.

LE: I'm gonna start blogging about this place while it's still fresh in my mind.
MARY: Yeah, while that cookie's still good. Have fun!
LE: See you in a bit!

How I let the girl slip away on NYE...

2010-01-01T17:37:00.001-08:00

So I met a girl last night, but alas, she's the one that got away. Here's how it happened...

I came back home to the Bay Area for the holidays, and for NYE, I went to a party at my childhood buddy Siphal's house. I get there around 9pm and spot this cute Filipino chick I've never seen before. Siphal was talking to her on the couch and suddenly directs her to me. Apparently, they were talking about drug counseling and addiction treatment or something (a field she is involved with), so he pointed out that I work for the show Intervention (my friends tend to make a big deal out of the irony that a trainwreck like me could land a job on such a program - of course, deep down inside, they're just jealous of my boyish good looks and the fact that I've been living in LA for almost three years and haven't gone crazy... yet). Anyway, before the girl and I even exchanged names, she asked for my number to network about job opportunities. I guess my Intervention gig is a bit of a chick magnet, since I don't remember the last time a girl asked for my digits at the beginning of the party less than five mins into meeting me. Shortly after, it became apparent that this girl (whose name was Jodie) came with Rob, my friend since junior high. It was never made clear what their relationship was, but he straight up told everybody that he brought her for the homies, ya know, like that Snoop Dogg song. Rob knew she wanted my number and told me to go ahead and *SYB her.

*URBAN DICTIONARY

S-Y-B (v.): to steal someone else's girl; a term my buddies and I have been using with each other since the 90's.

Example: I can't wait to become a sophomore so I can SYB all the freshman guys on campus!

Example: She's so pimp that she doesn't even go for bi or gay chicks anymore. She'll just SYB straight girls away from their boyfriends.

S-Y-B-ed (adj./past tense): to have your girl stolen by someone else.

Example: Because Mr. Ahmad's wife had a lifelong secret fetish for Jewish men, he easily got SYBed by Mr. Bergman.

So it was settled: I was given the SYB challenge for the night as everyone at the party watched me spit game on Jodie and try to take her off of Rob's hands. They supported me, they rooted for me, and some of them were even nice enough to refrain from telling her about my bedwetting skills as a boy. I told her more about my job, my life in LA, and whatever else I could come up with to fool her into thinking I'm actually an interesting guy. I must have succeeded because right after the clock struck midnight and everyone toasted and cheered, Jodie and I were conveniently sitting next to each other and she said to me that this was her first NY countdown in which she didn't have someone to kiss. Of course, in the back of my head, I giggled like a horny Japanese schoolgirl and thought, "Damn, she's not even trying to be subtle about wanting me to make a move, eh?" So I gave her her first kiss of 2010, and you would think this was the beginning of the long, enduring tale behind how I turned into a divorced father of five whose entire Hollywood paycheck goes to a gold-digging ex-wife and child support for the five half-Filipino brats she gave me.

Sorry y'all, but no, the night didn't quite end that way. Slowly but surely, my SYB game started to fall apart. First, I followed Siphal's orders and invited Jodie to come chill upstairs in one of the bedrooms, to which she insisted on staying downstairs. Next, out of nowhere, she became obsessed with my friend Tony, whom I've known since high school and has recently been practicing Mua Thai martial arts. She kept going on and on about how amazing he was and that she wanted to challenge him. Tony wouldn't fight her, but she kept trying. This basically continued until she left the party, which happened at around 1am when Rob decided he wanted to call it a night. My buddies told me to get her to stay and offer to take her home after, but as far as I was concerned at that point, it was already a lost cause (and a lost erection). So I just let her go... *cue melancholy violin music*

Fast forward to 10 in the morning: the remaining party people wake up in the house. Everyone asks me what happened with Jodie, that they thought she was into me, and how I managed to lose the SYB challenge. At first, I blamed most of it on Tony. Eventually though, I thought of another key factor: the kiss! See, I certainly gave Jodie an NY countdown kiss like she asked for, but then I came to realize what type of kiss I gave her:

1) The type of kiss that'll finally turn me into a human prince?
2) The "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" type of kiss?
3) The type of kiss you give your grandma when she doesn't have her dentures on?

That's right, Jodie got kiss type # 3 from me, a few light pecks on the lips. Why did I do that? Well, I was kinda shy about getting too kinky and suddenly making out with her in front of everybody in the living room. I certainly didn't want everyone to think I was a ho. To this, Siphal laughed. So did his sister Linda...

LINDA: What happened to what's her face? Did you tap that?
LE: Naw, I think she lost interest in me after I kissed her, because I didn't give her a real kiss.
SIPHAL: What the fuck, why didn't you just slobber her with a Frenchie? You should've done that and then went on to search for the 150 spots on her body, hahaha!!!
LE: What 150 spots on her body?
SIPHAL: The secret spots where she'll get sexually aroused. I read about it in the debut issue of Cosmo Magazine for Men, and the second issue, as well as the third and the fourth and the fifth.
LE: I don't know. I didn't wanna act like a ho around everybody.
LINDA: As if everybody doesn't already know you're a ho. It ain't no secret.
SIPHAL: I know, Le. We've been ho-ing it since the 4th grade. What do you need to be shy about?
LE: Sorry man I screwed up last night, and now I'm ho-less for 2010.
SIPHAL: So what? Don't let that discourage you.
LINDA: Yeah Le, that's your problem. You need to continue ho-ing no matter what happens. Have some self-confidence, damn it!
SIPHAL: Yup it's true. So the girl got away last night. It happens. That shouldn't take away from your inner ho-Le-ness. It just means that for now, you're a solo ho.
LINDA: Fo' sho, kinda like a ho for one, an independent ho, an unsigned ho.
LE: Hmmmm.
SIPHAL: Yeah cuz if it's one thing I've learned about you over the years, it's that even if you weren't dating or doing anything with any girl, you were still a ho at heart, and you can't deny that.
LE: Aaawww really?
LINDA: Yeah so no point in being shy about it.
LE: Geez thanks guys. I love y'all.

Perhaps it was for the best because the other thing everyone was asking was how Jodie could've been so drunk and stupid last night that she walked past the flat screen TV in the living room and fell right into it. In any case, I hugged Siphal and Linda and then everyone else at the house as I grabbed my stuff and got ready to leave. The impact of this revelation was still quite fresh in my mind as I exited the house and received my first dose of sunlight for 2010. With the brightness that surrounded me when I swung the door open, I walked out into a new year of shining possibilities, with new hope, and ho-pe!!!

Happy 2010!!!

What's your new year's resolution?

2009-12-15T20:46:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all my friends and colleagues for your love and support in 2009 :) And now for my usual 2 centz...

Does anyone even set new year's resolutions anymore? It seems as though everyone has lost hope in committing to anything. Last year, I had an unspoken resolution that I kept on the DL (since I knew the chances of me keeping it were as slim as Kate Moss at the beginning of rehab). But holy shmoly, I succeeded at it 100%!!!!

So hell, why not set a goal or two for 2010? Actually, mine is pretty cliche: trying to exercise more. Yet it's just as necessary, and I'm trying to keep it fairly simple and open-ended. I was doing yoga and hiking regularly for a while but I've fallen off the wagon, so I need to get back on, if not with these activities, then with something else. I love to walk and swim too. I've even considered trying running again which I haven't done in over ten years. Should I go all LA and become a gym rat? I just know that my lazy ass needs to do SOMETHING!

In any case, before I move onto 2010, let's recap my highlights of 2009. I'd love to hear yours if you're in the mood to share...

10) HIKING THE CHUMASH TRAIL
This is a trail in Simi-Valley (about 30 mins north of LA) that I did in January. It's one of the few extended hikes I've gone on alone, and I must say the views topped my list of anything I've seen in my four years of hiking. If I could choose to be any animal, this is why I'd choose to be an eagle.

9) BEING UNDERWATER
When I used the pool at the local city college this summer, I played around beneath the surface a bit which I don't normally do. It made me realize how relaxing being UNDER the water can be. Now if only the ocean would be warmer, I'd swim in there too. If I could choose to be any animal, this is why I'd choose to be Nemo.

8) TRANCE, TRANCE, AND MORE TRANCE
Not that I don't listen to anything else, but when I discovered these two songs, my nipples got kinda hard. Oh who am I kidding!? Not just kinda, but VERY!!!!
Ligaya by Gouryella
Delusion by Super8 & Tab

7) KOREAN BBQ OVERKILL
Around March, my buddy Anders and I discovered a $16.99 all-you-can-eat joint in Koreatown. The rest is history...

6) THE WIRE
My sudden dive into the world of drug policy reform back in 2000 set off my resentment of the news and television business. So it's quite ironic that I would find the greatest depiction of how screwed up our drug war is from a television series. Thank you Netflix, thank you HBO, and thank you to all the friends and colleagues who have been telling me about this show. I finally came around.

5) INTERVENTION SHOOT: LINDA
I don't usually go out in the field for my job, but the last time I did... wowza what a ride! This shoot featured the first Asian family in our show's history and marked the debut of our 8th season and 100th episode! Best wishes to Linda and her family now and in the future.
Watch the preview here (click on episode 100. Linda)

4) SPEAKING OF INTERVENTION...
I am approaching my second year on the job, and slowly but hopefully and surely, I shall squeeze my way into the writing department, and write about the whole journey there. For example, write now I'm going to write, "The producers have had me write three webisodes so far with another one over the holidays, and it's looking like I might write all the new ones from now on. I've also officially become the assistant to the show's writers." Wow that's a whole lotta "write"s in one paragraph. Am I write or wrong in saying I might be getting a bit obsessive about it?

3) TRYING TO HAVE DOLORES' BABY
I'm such a groupie! Singing along to "When You're Gone" at the Cranberries reunion concert was such a thrilling experience! Thank you Olivia for rocking out with me that night! I went to their San Francisco show but here's...
Their performance from Paris, 1999

2) WEEKEND IN LAS VEGAS
I love this picture. I guess it speaks for itself.

1) WELCOMING MY FIRST NEPHEW TO THE WORLD
The fact that my naughty antics in Vegas only comes second to my family and baby time is probably a testament to why I should never have kids. But anyway this is Skyler, the most adorable and cutest lil' guy in my family, well other than me of course :p

Accomplishments from my 20s...

2009-11-15T06:28:00.000-08:00

I am officially over the hill, and here's what I have to show for it!!!!

1999
- Spontaneously decided that I wanted to make movies as a career.
- Went to my first rave.

2000
- Started film school at San Francisco State University, though I had to sneak in as an undeclared major ;)
- Started volunteering for the rave health and safety nonprofit DanceSafe, appearing on ABC 20/20.

2001
- Returned to China to celebrate my grandma's 80th birthday. This was the first time my entire family visited home on the same trip together.

2002
- Got arrested at a medical marijuana demonstration in Sacramento.
- Visited Seattle for the first time.

2003
- Got arrested while blocking an intersection in San Francisco as a protest against the Iraq war.

2004
- Completed a documentary on the criminalization of raves and youth culture, screened it at various campuses and conferences, appeared in my school paper.
- Built my website http://LeShengLiu.com by slapping every piece of creative, literary, and political work I had ever done onto it.
- Visited New Orleans for the first time. Conducted a speech on the drug war and the rave scene to an international audience of 500 activists and health workers.
- Visited DC/Maryland for the first time.
- Became an uncle for the first time with my niece Kylie (from my sister Sarah).

2005
- Became an uncle for the second time with my niece Charlotte (from my sister Jing).
- Graduated San Francisco State with a B.A. in film production.
- Visited Houston for the first time.

2006
- Returned to China with my whole family to see my grandma for the last time. She passed away a few months later.
- Visited Miami for the first time.
- Visited St. Louis for the first time.
- Conducted a presentation on ecstasy in the Oakland hip-hop scene. This was the last major project I completed for DanceSafe.
- Became an uncle for the third time with my niece Abby (from Jing).

2007
- Moved to LA to pursue a career in documentary filmmaking.

2008
- Got a full-time job for the documentary TV show "Intervention."
- Visited DC/Maryland for the second time.
- Bought a new car with help from my parent$.

2009
- Reassigned as a writer's assistant on "Intervention" to support my interest of writing.
- Moved into my own apartment.
- Became an uncle for the fourth time with my nephew Skyler (from Sarah).

2010
- Got abducted by a UFO and then returned and reincarnated as an alien Christ to take over Earth.

2011
- Jaded and burned out, decided I liked being a normal alien instead, leaves Earth to retire on Mars.

My Food Network

2009-10-20T22:31:00.000-07:00

I've always been a rather impulsive person, and cooking is one the latest activities I've engaged in suddenly and passionately. Well, passionate might not be an accurate term. I don't enjoy cooking as much as everyone thinks I do, but I am proud of what I've put together in the past six weeks.

Tofu and broccoli stir fried in ginger peanut sauce

Fried rice w/ spam, ginger, egg, cilantro, onion, & mushroom

Chicken enchiladas

Pad is pimped out!!!!

2009-10-09T10:36:00.000-07:00

Ok now it's time to take a tour of my new mansion. Well actually it's the studio apt I moved into a month ago, but it feels big to me :D

A pretty clean and quiet neighborhood. I get my own parking space.

I run in and out of my apt half naked all the time since the pool is right outside my doorstep.

Dining room. Table and chairs from Craigslist... $40

The kitchen where I cook (a new concept for me)

Fridge included. Stove works, haven't tried the oven yet. Vent is a hole on the ceiling, kinda ghetto but whatever.

The executive restroom & shower... rug and shower curtain courtesy of Ross, under $10 each :)

The master bedroom heehehe!!! New full-size mattress and box off Craigslist $150

The living room... Futon from Craigslist $50!!!

The studio :) Same turntable system I've had for like ten yrs now!!!

Living on your own... priceless!

LA is on fire (as usual)

2009-09-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

So I've spent the last week moving into a new studio apartment in Burbank, about 8 miles from work so it's gonna be a farther commute than before, but the neighborhood is nice and clean and I'm really excited about having my own pad to pimp out! $750/month and not too shabby, although I still have a shitload of cleaning to do around the kitchen and bathroom.

Last night, I finally moved all my stuff in, so I am officially at this new spot which also means that this morning was my first time commuting to work from this residence. I walk out and notice the shoes on my porch covered in some white dust. I also notice it all over my car, as well as on other cars even when I arrive at work. If it was snow, that would've been cool since I've never stepped on snow. My first thought was actually that I just really need to wash my damn car since it's been dirty long before the white dust fell on it. But I did forget one thing: about 15 miles northeast of me is a gigantic blaze that is raging beyond the control of firefighters (they've only stopped 5% of it, apparently). So it continues on, though I haven't been too worried since it would have to engulf a major freeway to get to me and it's also spreading north anyway.

I guess I do have to say that walking out of your new home and being welcomed by ashes all over the place was a bit disturbing. Good thing I was too stupid to make the connection at the time. I just thought excitedly, "Shit did someone sprinkle crack on my block?" Followed by a few twitches and the uncontrollable neck-scratching. But alas, it was from the fire. Oh well, if it gets to me, I'll just jump in the pool!

Support the Cause: Drive Less in June!

2009-06-09T22:34:00.000-07:00

Friends, family, and colleagues,

Sometimes I jump into things impulsively for no apparent reason, which brings me to the Car-Free Challenge by Transform, an organization based in my former hood of Oakland. I signed up and set my own goal of minimizing my contribution to gas guzzling and traffic congestion to 150 miles or less for the rest of this month (excluding my road trip to the Bay Area for Father's Day wkd and my required driving for work). In addition to the mileage goal, I have set a donation goal of $100, which (if I don't meet) I will be required to donate $65 of my own money to TransForm. So if you love me, hook me up with a few pennie$!!!

To donate and read about my car-free adventures this month, go to my profile:

When I was a kid, I hated having to walk to school. Nowadays, if it's a few miles away, I just trek it with my own two feet. Living in LA aka LAzy LAnd, people look at you crazy for doing something like that. I have to admit I haven't been walking to work much since the winter, but hopefully this challenge will get me back into the swing of things. I used to walk to work a lot last year. That's one of the benefits of living less than 3 miles from your job. Also, my neighborhood includes the yoga studios I practice at and a monthly documentary filmmakers networking event I attend, so I'll definitely blog about that.

Unfortunately, I do have to drive to leave my town of Sherman Oaks, so as part of this challenge, I'll try to figure out public transpo routes for when I need to head down to Hollywood/LA/Westside. I'll be going to the Bay Area to visit my family for Father's Day wkd, plus I am required to drive for errands at my job, so hope I won't be breaking the rules by excluding those miles.

Wish me luck!!! :)

If you don't want to give online, you can mail a check to:

TransForm
405 14th Street, Suite 605
Oakland, CA, 94612

Be sure to write my name on it! TransForm is a 501(c)(3) Tax ID: 72-1521579. All contributions are tax deductible to fullest extent of the law.

And you should consider taking the Car-Free Challenge, too! Join today!

Halfway through 2009

2009-05-27T23:45:00.000-07:00

Is it almost June already? Damn when you get old, time passes by quickly. Seeing as I turn 30 in November (yes I still look like a kid, it's that ancient Chinese secret), my health was a huge part of my unspoken New Year's resolution. I keep it on the DL to save myself of the embarrassment when I inevitably fail at the resolution. But so far I've been a really good boy: hiking and yoga almost once a week...

I've also managed to stay clean of drinking, smoking, and other mind-altering chemicals for all of '09. Don't ask me how I did it. I just did, and I still do. Speaking of which, I went back to work at Intervention after Christmas break with a brief writing assignment: editing a transcript for an interview we conducted on a past subject, for an online follow-up video. As some of you know, I want to become a writer on the show, and my producers gave me a shot at this small project. The writing producer saw my final piece, loved it, and says I should do more after the next round of follow-ups are shot. Let's hope this is a stepping stone to a magnificent career in writing, although my inspirations tend to be alcoholics (Poe, Capote, etc.), so maybe I should reconsider this whole clean-and-sober thing :)

As for more recent developments, I spent the middle of May assisting on a shoot here in Southern California of Intervention's first Asian family featuring a 39-yr-old Chinese woman addicted to fentanyl, an opiate painkiller she uses compulsively (as if it's going outta style) to relieve what she claims to be pain from a condition called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome in which one's joints get dislocated easily. It was some wild times! She expressed discomfort and joint dislocation during her interview, and found relief in taking off her shorts and tank top. Did she have panties or a bra on? No. Did she walk around the interview room butt ass naked for half an hour to continue relieving her alleged pain? Yes. For better or for worse, Asian families are as crazy as them white folks, and thank God (or Buddha) that my show is reprezentin'!

Okay enough about health and work! I still like to have fun, damn it! I bought a webcam recently and hooked it up to my turntables. Surprisingly, I've had my decks for years now and most of my friends have no idea that I spin. I've been a resident performer at this club known as Le's Bedroom for almost a decade, so how could y'all not know? Anyway now you know and if you have a video chat program such as AIM, MSN, Yahoo, or even Gmail, you can watch and listen as I play my epic, melodic, make-your-spine-tingle, from-your-neck, all-the-way-down-to-your-asscrack trance! Just add me on chat and I'll invite you when I'm on. For now, I don't have a specific schedule of when I play.

And for those of you who wanna party with me in person, I'll be going to Electric Daisy Carnival in LA on Saturday, June 27th!

I'll end this blog with some lyrics from the newest 12" I bought! "Ligaya" by Gouryella...

This is the first day of my life,
For once I'm sure,
That this is where I long to be,
No need to know,
If there is something more than this,
No need to go,
Cause there is nothing more than this,
My future is so clear,
Cause everything's right here,
Inside of me,
Inside of me...

Namaste!

My Life Without Me

2009-05-04T00:22:00.001-07:00

Tonight I am sleeping, as in nights of childhood,
Making right as I should, taking flight as I would,
Though in depth I just slept, escaping all I could,
And waking to wonder what was bad, what was good,

Tonight I am leaving, this soft body in bed,
To die like skin that sheds, as free blood turns red,
Though in many respects I am already dead,
And have long dreaded less and less what rests ahead,

Tonight I am feeling, not anger, fear or lust,
Not a sense of a must, of a sense of an “us,”
Though feeling the freedom of flying, desert dust,
And the beauty of doubt, the ugliness of trust,

Tonight I am breathing, oh the irony right here,
Only alone I hear, this rhythm oh so dear,
Though so much corrupted such in my childhood years,
And what I would fear shall here and now disappear,

Tonight I am heaving, hearing it ever more,
My heart beating me bored, back to acts of before,
Though those acts be rested, reconciled or ignored,
And be left to the winds, to the waves and the shores,

Tonight I am fleeing,
Right through this ceiling I shall fall,
Through this door and this wall,
Through these floors and these halls,
Through the cities and crowds,
To the mountains and clouds,
From sea to shining sea,
Through trees freeing their leaves,
To an ocean of stars, the great depths of afar,
To drown in the sight of night,
Black sky surrounded by lights of white,

Tonight I am seeing, behind and around me,
What a world it’s about to be, one of words without “we,”
Tonight I am keeping, my life as it shall be,
This is my life, my life without me.

- 9/22/07

Soundtrack of My Life

2009-05-02T21:51:00.001-07:00

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
You can blame my three older sisters for my 80s geekiness...

Before he started hittin' the pipe, and hitting Whitney...

JUNIOR HIGH...

This was my favorite song in the 7th grade...

The early 90s = Highlight of West Coast rap...

WHEN I STARTED HIGH SCHOOL...

HK superstar Jacky Cheung. All his albums were great but I listened to this one a lot when it came out...

My favorite rap group and album of all time...

Though it wasn't til yrs later in college that I started to understand his messages...

Before I even knew what trance music was...

My senior yr, I bought this CD. Yes I loved it, and yes I still have it and listen to it. I don't care what any of you say!!!

COLLEGE
Here is where it gets complicated because I started going to raves, I started buying old music and getting turned onto bands from back in da days, and I also started hanging out with white people. With all that said, here are the albums I've listened to obsessively during my 20s...

Since graduating high school, I've been listening to them nonstop, although by then their lead singer had already been dead for five yrs. Greatest band to come out of HK...

New Age Compilation, Enigma, Enya, I even listen to Yanni (shut up don't judge me)

The main DJ who inspired me when first went to raves...

Even though he plays like shit live, I love this CD...

breaks/trance DJ Ghostchild Volume 2

Oh Dolores, I wanna have yo' baby...

My first roommates in LA complained cuz I played this CD 24/7...

Drug Policy, Student Activism, & Writer's Block

2009-03-30T20:00:00.001-07:00

Tonight I'm a bit frustrated. I'm trying to finish a video within the next two or three wks and I can't friggin' find any music that I'm satisfied with. Then the computer froze on me. I guess it serves me right to work on a system comprised of Final Cut 3 (which is like ancient Egypt in editing software yrs) and the original iMac (yes the bubble-shaped ones). There's an angel sitting on my shoulder telling me to turn that overweight, neon green piece of junk back on and continue browsing for music. But I flicked that little sucker off my shoulder. I'd rather blog right now.

How the hell did I get to this point? Well it all started in DC right after the 2004 elections (ugh). I was at the annual national conference for Students for Sensible Drug Policy, or SSDP. That was my first time in our nation's capitol. I brought my camcorder and recorded a load of footage, most of which sat in my room collecting dust for the next four yrs. So when SSDP's 2008 national gathering came around, I thought I should whip out the old tapes and cut something together, which is how I came up with this at that last minute.

The time between the two events had been spent by yours truly in progressive apathy and lack of interest in politics. I wasn't walking around with this t-shirt as a joke. I sincerely did not care who was actually going to make it to the next presidential election, unless it was Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

At the last minute, I ended up voting (yes, for Obama, sheesh) and, later that month, flew out for SSDP. The 2008 conference marked the organization's ten-yr anniversary, and it was nice to visit DC again, even though I basically froze my [insert inappropriate body part of your choice here] off this time around! The only thing that saved me from the cold temperature was the warmth of energy circulating through the conference. Look at how much fun I had on the first night I arrived!

By the end of the wkd, what really got my juices spinning was the fact that the organization not only had opened an office in the San Francisco Bay Area, but that the first ever regional conference serving the West Coast chapters was going to take place in the spring! And whenever I get excited about something, one thing is bound to happen: I make a video about it! So during my visit home over the Christmas break, I spent some time with my SSDP friends in the Bay Area and put together this promo in anticipation for the regional gathering taking place at UC Berkeley, April 24-26. I was very disappointed at the Youtube quality (since I shot this footage on an HVX), although as I'm learning, a dirty look always works to your advantage if your audience is San Francisco hippies...

So indeed, this historic event for SSDP is less than a month from the time of this writing, and I am trying to use the footage I had shot over Christmas for yet another portion of this series of videos for SSDP: a short documentary about the personal backgrounds of the organization's Bay Area members, including me, which is what makes this final project so valuable to me. I'm crunching to get a cut finished and hopefully screened at the Berkeley conference, but I've been running into writer's block of all variations (the musical sort, tonight). Well considering that I'm not on any assignment or payroll for this project, I might be getting worked up over nothing. No starving orphans are going to perish if I don't complete my edit in the next few wks, but the visionary documentary filmmaker in me likes to think so.