Oubliette

An oubliette was a form of dungeon which was accessible only from a hatch in a high ceiling. To exit an oubliette was nearly impossible without outside help. The word comes from the French oublier, "to forget," as it was used for those prisoners the captors wished to forget about. Most prisoners were left to die of starvation.

Asian Excellence, in Award-Show-form

Is is just me, or is the concept of the Asian Excellence Awards... well, sorta horseshitty...?

There was a time when I was fairly involved in the Asian-American New York theater scene. There were good aspects of the experience for me. There was also a lot of hypocritical soapbox bullshit.

I just find the idea of the Asian Excellence Awards sort of sad. A popularity contest in a ghetto. It's cool to see more diversity in entertainment, but... another fucking award show? It's almost as pathetic as a Food Network Award Show.

Award Shows are excuses to get people dolled up and in front of cameras. Calling it "Asian Excellence" gives it a sheen of something empowering, but it is so fucking shallow. And ultimately, I think it helps to marginalize Asian-Americans.

I don't want to be known as great Asian-American writer. I don't want that fucking qualifier. I'm not going to follow in the footsteps of Frank Chin or David Henry Hwang. Not that I have anything against their work, but "race" isn't something that's going to be in the forefront of my work. Even the play I'm going to have a reading of on August 1st—CHINADOLL OVERDRIVE—isn't a play about race.

Everyone's got their thing. ASIAN EXCELLENCE AWARDS is clearly about egos being stroked. The very idea of it just makes me wince.

Read Tak Toyoshima's Secret Asian Man. Go ahead and pass it along to a friend.

A Dark Horse

I know, I know, the updates here are sadly sporadic. I do what I can. But I'm feeling contemplative enough to drop another entry here, for whoever might find it.

I really do go through these stretches where I feel like all my work is crap. Only way to get anything done is to try to power through that.

I like seeing the flaws in other people's work. It's not (exclusively) Schadenfreude. My mindset isn't, "Oh, I'm better than that person!" I enjoy seeing other people be bold enough to parade their imperfections. I've got a tendency to hide scripts and tinker with them for a really long time before putting them out there, and I think I've really got to just put them out there sometimes.

Some of it will work, some of it won't, some people will like it, some will hate it. But you build on that and you keep going.

Anyway, I'm going through a stretch where I'm feeling a little better about the work I'm creating. I've got a reading of a new play on August 1st. More information to come.

Platinum Dunes

Everybody excited about that TRANSFORMERS movie? I sure am. I want to see it again... and again... and again...

Been a helluva year. But really, the past year's been the culmination of many years of struggling. Jesus, you've got to muscle through endless waves of people who don't believe in you. Take solace in the handful that do.

Things are going well. The fight's never over, but it's going well right now. Tide may have turned, at long last.

Home Sweet Home

Something's happening.

Flying westward sometime the next couple weeks.

And then...?

I'm fucking done with you motherfuckers. You hear me? YOU ARE DONE. You know who you fucking are. I'm coming for you. I'm coming for your family. It's over.

It's not a threat. It's guaranteed. I'll give you a head start but make no mistake, I WILL FIND YOU. Light a candle. Say your prayers.