Lights Turn Me On

WORDPRESS WORLD! It’s only been 2 days since my last post and I miss you!!

Got back from a bangin’ weekend with the fam in NYC.  We were showing my aunt (visiting from Vietnam) around to all the sightseeing joints so I def felt like a tourist again.

This dude is the FN man.  He’s from Trinidad.  We were waiting in line for the Statue of Liberty and he asked us, “Where are you guys from?”  My dad said, “Vietnam!”  Then he starts playing the National Anthem of Vietnam on his violin!!!  That’s wasup homie!!


When I was younger, I used to not like Times Square because I felt impounded by the towering advertisements.  It felt like I was being swallowed by the monster of a consumerist culture at it’s worst.  It was honestly revolting for me.  I didn’t want to be a part of it.  It made me want to retreat to the mountains and raise sheep and make my own clothes.  I still feel that way sometimes.  But now, more than anything I just love love LOVE the SHINY LIGHTS!!!!! Brings me to babytalk gaaaaaaawhaaaWOW!

Lights like these are enough to make me fall in love.

I’m uploading two videos of the light shows (Snowflakes and Tree).  They will be posted this week!

SUNDAY BUZZ BLEEDS INTO MONDAY MAJOR

1.) I told y’all I would release my “Figure 8’s & Elephants” painting today, but I’m pushing it back one more day. TOMORROW! PROMISE!

2.) I’m also pushing the release date for my first chapbook: JANUARY 5th!

>>December is here in a few hours, and I realized I’m just not ready to put out a quality chapbook.  I want to take an extra month to solidify and edit my poem selections, and work on the cover art.

3.) Website will also be revamped and relaunched: JANUARY 5th!

>>I’ll be updating the gallery with recent paintings, hooking up the Merch page, tidying up little details, moving my Wordpress blog onto my own server, and more good shit!

I hate to change deadlines, but I need more time!! Plus, it’s better to drop these bangin’ changes for the bangin’ NEW YEEEEEAR!

4) Also, my first solo exhibition dates in LA have been moved to JANUARY 2010! We gona start the new year off riiiiight yezzirrrrrr!

Bloggy blog posts to expect this week:

1) Figure 8’s & Elephants Painting (a.k.a. Balance & Babar!)
2) The story of how I was raised Khmer
3) Awesome NYC light show videos to get you in the holiday mood
4) A Title for the Readership’s Hit List
5) Whatever else I feel like.

Thanks for reading.

November 30, 2009 | No Comments »

Jose James: Park Bench People

Big ups to the homie, CHUCK, for putting me on!!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo3hzUmoi_s&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

This reminds me of a painting I did back in 2005, called “Park People” of a homie sitting on the Park Bench! WHAAAAA! Yes yes y’all.

For more paintings and artwork, visit my flashy flash website: www.RIOTINTHESKY.com

Holla.

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Spank You Spandex & Turkey Jesus!

Ooooooo after nearly 36 hours of gluttonous indulgences, my jeans are feeling tiiiiiiiiight!  This is when I bust out my spandex and sweat pants for that snowy marshmallow season! Mmmmmm…


The resurrection of TURKEY!!!!! I don’t eat meat, but this discovery was awesome.

I know I said I wasn’t going to blog until Monday, but I couldn’t resist.  There’s only so much a food comatized couch potato fatty can do on “Black Friday”.  Speaking of which, who came up with these names? “Black Friday”, “Blackmail”, “Black List”… all of which insinuate cheapness, lesser value, riotous behavior, deceitful trickery, malicious intent and a list of unwanted people.  Gaddam, does racism ever take a holiday?

I hate shopping on “Black Friday”.  It’s a nauseating experience for me.  Too many people rampaging the aisles and not enough patience (in me).  I don’t like shopping in general, unless I know what I want.  It’s too much of a conflict of character within myself.  Consumerism vs. Buddhism.  Consumerism has got us thinking that we have to buy MORE than we really need to be happy.  There’s a difference between immediate indulgences and sustainable happiness.  Most of those immediate indulgences come in material things–like expensive bags, jewelry or shoes–which overtime can become excessive if not handled with moderation.  Buddhism, on the other hand, promotes the philosophy of detaching ourselves from ALL material desires–to decrease our greed and reach enlightenment.  I’m not saying one is better than the other.  Rather, I’m constantly trying to understand my role as a pushing Buddhist living in the reality of a consumerist culture.  Minimalist and simplistic is my style, occasionally spiked.  Balance is my ultimate goal.  That being said, can I just brag about my new pair of sexy black boots I just copped the other day, haaaaaaay!!

Every year for Thanksgiving, I make my most anticipated VEGETARIAN POT PIE!  Which was recently renamed from its former, “Vegetarian Shephard’s Pie.”  My cuzzo was tripping like, “How can this be Vegetarian Shepard’s Pie?  The definition of Shepard’s Pie is ground beef.” I said, “It’s VEGETARIAN shepard’s pie, aite?”  And he goes, “Are there vegetarians in it??”  Okay, I get it.  It’s no longer called veggie shep pie…it’s veggie POT pie! Holla.



It tastes BEDDA than it looks. :)

November 27, 2009 | 5 Comments »

Thank you thank you thank you…you're far too kind.

I am thankful for:

1) mom and dad for getting over their prejudices of each other and giving me life.
2) Jenny for being the first subscriber to my bloggyblog.
3) Kimberly for sneaking me snacks from the kitchen after 9pm.
4) all my friends–you know who you are don’t make me name you because it’ll make me lose friends I didn’t even know I had.
5) the cute coffee boy who serves me my almond brioche in the mornings.
6) a job where I have way too much fun laughing and talking smack.
7) the inventors of vegan cupcakes. 8) Totino’s pizza rolls.
9) YOU for actually reading this far.
10) everybody who fought & died so I can have the rights I have to live the life I live with all of the above listed and more.

THANKFUL ALL DAY EVERYDAY.  I’m spending time with the fambam and going to NYC this weekend, so no bloggyblog posts from me until MONDAY! (Unless it’s an impromptu post).  I’ll be unveiling a *new* never-before-seen painting on Monday’s post, so holla back.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

November 26, 2009 | No Comments »

When Globalization Hits Home

Globalization has declared a war on diversity by setting a universal standard of living. The process has most of the world convinced that the capitalist way is the “best” way.  For nations to gain international leverage, they must enter the race to modernize society. In essence, the reality of globalization results in standardizing all aspects of culture–language, customs, traditions, food, production, manufacturing, etc. When we see field workers drop their pitchforks and take up jobs at the nearest McDonalds–that is a product of globalization. When we see a street vendor sell rice plates for 50 cents outside a newly erected Louis Vuitton store–that is a product of globalization. When we see indigenous mountain people sell souvenirs to tourists for a living–that is a product of globalization. While the process of globalization standardizes, modernizes and quickly transforms a nation’s economic landscape, it inevitably widens the disparity between the rich and the poor at exponential rates.

There was a point in time when my dad’s family and my mom’s family were in the same economic class–DIRT POOR. I remember visiting both sides (Dad’s family in the North, Mom’s family in the South) and it was always everybody packed into a one room “home” with rice, salt and potatoes for sparse meals. By the end of the Vietnam War, most of the country was so fragmented and ravaged there were only 2 social strata: the impoverished and the ruling. In 2007, Vietnam finally joined the WTO (World Trade Organization) and made a significant shift toward an OPEN MARKET ECONOMY–which basically means they’re opening their doors to compete in the global economy, which basically means more standardizing, more mechanizing, more modernizing, more skyscrapers, more condos, more business suits, more wireless networking, more conference calls and more westernizing. This is a race, so you can either get with it or get left behind. But the reality is, some people can’t even run the race if they wanted to.

Being in the city (and capital, Hanoi), my dad’s side of the family still had the chance to go to school and pursue an education. Most of my dad’s siblings went into finance, marketing and business. With the booming open market, some quickly went from rags to riches (my aunt even got her own chauffeur!!). My dad’s family are part of the lucky few who entered the finance market at a good time–when it was rapidly on the rise and they got pulled up as quickly as they entered. Like stock markets, trading and closing deals–timing is everything.

My mom’s side of the family is less fortunate. They are stuck in the cycle of poverty which they’ll probably never escape. As a small fishing village, education was less accessible. When boys become men, they head out to sea and become fishermen. Girls find little ways to make money, like washing hair, bartering at the market or selling lottery tickets. That small fishing village my mom grew up in has not changed. Some of her siblings are still living in the same dainty shacks made of the same wood planks and metal sheets I remember visiting as a child. I’m surprised the homes haven’t collapsed under the water yet. Everyone is begging for a way out of poverty. My female cousins keep pleading me to find them American husbands that can marry them out of the cycle. Now, after all these years, the government is kicking everyone out of my mom’s fishing village because they want to build a resort for tourists. The villagers have no mode of transportation, no savings to buy land and no money to build a new home. Tourism, capital and resorts are all a result of globalization, which in turn makes the economy better, but makes the poor just damn pointless.


(This is actually the “nicer” part of the village. My aunt’s shack is on wooden stilts above the water. And the public toilet is like a high dock on poles. You squat above a hole in the dock that drops all your crap into the ocean beneath your stankin’ ass.)

With a Bachelor of Arts from UCLA, I’ve studied and theorized globalization from many angles. But I can’t even find the words to describe how I feel when I actually WITNESS the impact of it in my polarized family. North vs. South. City vs. village. Rich vs. poor. They say that those who flourish within capitalism can only profit at the expense of fucking over another entity. If there is a winner, somebody’s got to lose. So within economic politics, is the reason for my dad’s side becoming richer part of the reason that contributes to my mom’s side being fucked over?

November 24, 2009 | No Comments »

Refugee Romeo & Juliet: I WAS BORN

I’m starting a new category.  It’s going to be somewhere between critical essays on race, class, gender, sexuality, global ish and the good, the bad, the ugly in my eyes.

There are many layers when talking about the Vietnam War.  So let me break the entities down for you:

The Colonizers = French (Outsiders)
The Anti-Imperialist Revolutionaries = North Vietnam (Insiders)
The Anti-Communist Revolutionaries = South Vietnam (Insiders)
The Nosy MFerz with the Personal Agenda = United States (Outsiders)

North Vietnamese revolutionary leader, Ho Chi Minh, finally kicked the French out, claiming Vietnamese independence for the first time in over 1000 years.  After so many years of fragmented colonization, he wanted to unite all of Vietnam under one vision–Communism.  But South Vietnam wanted to do their own thing, so they became more of the underdawg radicals, waging a guerilla war against the North.  The U.S. got involved, fighting on the side of the “South” but since they couldn’t tell North Vietnamese apart from South Vietnamese, they ended up murdering anyone and everyone who looked Asian.  To this day, the world still questions why the U.S. got involved and what they were fighting for–and no one will give you a good reason because there isn’t one. But international supporters like Che Guevara, Black Panther Party, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, African nations, Third World Nations, the working class and revolutionaries alike outspokenly stood in solidarity with Vietnam against U.S. and their aggressive, imperialist, suckiest agenda.  Basically, looking at internal affairs, the Vietnam War was a war between one set of Revolutionaries against another set of Revolutionaries.  The North and the South did not get along.  It was an onslaught of radicals, militants, guerilla fighters and working people against their mirrored selves.  Everybody wanted independence, but freedom looked different to different people.

My pops was a city boy from the North, one of 7 children. After the North Vietnamese kicked out the French AND the Americans in 1975, the entire country fell under “Communist” rule.  There was a lot of chaos and poverty.  Many people wanted to get out but it was illegal to leave the country.  So people secretly escaped by boat; hence, refugee.  If you were caught trying to escape, you were immediately imprisoned.  When my pops made his run, he left only a letter behind for my grandma.  He didn’t tell anybody–not even his family because it endangered him to get caught.

My mom was a seaside girl from the South–she was from a small, fishing village where all the men went off to sea for months at a time and the women stayed back and hustled a modest living in anticipation to see how much fish would be brought home.  They lived in shacks made from scraps of metal and wood, some on stilts because the tide would rise and so people had to travel by boat to go from home to home.  My mom was the youngest of 5 kids, and the only one to escape Vietnam by boat.  The boat fare was 1 ounce of gold.

My mom and pops were just teenagers when they said “FIGHT THE POWER!” and escaped Vietnam.  We got the revolutionary-life-on-the-line-fight-for-what-you-believe spirit in our blood.

To fast forward to the good part, both my parents coincidentally ended up in East Boston via a Refugee Relief program.  They lived in the same housing complex with other refugee homies.  My mom was a Pretty Young Thing and all the girls had a crush on my dad.  No surprise, my pops had his eyes on my mom, and tried stepping to her but immediately my mom was like, “I don’t date men from the Communist Country!”  This was nothing to deter my dad.  He insisted, “Just because my government is like that doesn’t mean I’M like that…” (Sound familiar, Americans?)  My pops persisted with the mackdown and continued to woo my mom until next thing you know, my older sister was born, and then I WAS BORN!  It was a brave, forbidden love for it’s time. But like Che Guevara and many revolutionaries will tell you, at the core of any revolution, is love.

And that’s how I was born.  Now let’s start the show.

It’s cool to find artwork in every countries around the world supporting Vietnam (China, Cuba, Angola, Russia, Philippines, Cambodia, etc.).  This is just a snippet:


Cuba supports Vietnam: “For a Vietnam 10 times more beautiful.”


“The People of Viet Nam will win!  The American Imperialist will lose!”


Friends today and back in the day

Read about how the Black Panther Party and Ho Chi Minh became homies! Click the image for full story:


I had the honor of meeting Muhammad Ali when I was in the fourth grade!!  This man laid the WWF truth on the world.  And I’m not talking about wrestling.  I’m talking about the SMACKDOWN!!!

November 23, 2009 | 4 Comments »

New Sunday Buzz & Solo Exhibition @ UCLA

Oooooooooo it’s been an exciting week since my last Sunday Confessional…which will now be called Sunday Buzz, because Confession has such a nefarious connotation, and like a wise graffiti buddy once said, “YOU NEVER WANT TO INCRIMINATE YOURSELF!”

Plus, Buzz is better because I’ll be yapping about all things good with me. YEEEEEEEA.

I’ve been scrubbing toilets and evacuating the dust bunnies all day in preparation for my Auntie’s arrival tonight from Vietnam!! Yup, this will be the first relative from the motherland to visit the U.S.A. since my pops fled the country 30 years ago after the Fall of Saigon.  Inspired by my Auntie’s visit and my parents’ Refugee State of Mind, I will be dedicating two blog posts this week on my family’s history.

I’m letting you know what kinda posts to expect before they even go up!

BLOGGY POSTS THIS WEEK:

Monday: The Refugee Romeo & Juliet Story
Read about the tragic and fated events that led to me being born.

Tuesday: When Globalization Gets Personal
This shit ain’t all fun and gravy when the theoretical becomes real.  Half of my family is Vietnam ballin’.  The other half is getting robbed, and plain fucked by global politics. Get an inside perspective on my family’s story as the epitome of globalization.

Wednesday: Figure 8s & Elephants
I’ll be unveiling a never before seen painting (from Summer 2009)!! Inspired by the balance I’m perpetually striving for in my life and Babar.  I’m excited for this one.

Thursday: L.A. Throwback
The importance of friendship & mentorship.

Friday: Damn, I really don’t know yet.  TBD

DISCLAIMER: All of this is subject to change or be rearranged at anytime! But I WILL get them all to you.


GOOD NEWS!! MY FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION (UNcurated by me):


I’m heeeella excited to announce that the UC Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission (CAC) is doing an entire solo exhibition on my artwork!  So if you’re in the Los Angeles area, def check it out.  This is my first solo show conceived & curated by someone OTHER THAN MYSELF (say haaay!).  It is also CAC’s FIRST permanent art collection, which is exciting for all of us.   This is one of the reasons why I love creating visual artwork; it is a product that can be transported and shared in real life with real people anywhere in the world no matter where I AM in the world.  It is most definitely a part of the dream.  Thank you to Joanne Danganan and Margarita Rozenbaoum for making this really happen. (I didn’t get to come up with the exhibit title but that’s okay).

November 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »

FORT HOOD Up In Our Homes!

Every time there is a shooting in America, every person of color prays the gun man (or woman) isn’t of one’s own race or ethnicity (or religion)…except for white people of course.  White people are the only group of citizens who do not become antagonized and vilified by the media when a crime is committed…because I guess it’s just their natural right to be criminals, or millionaires, or football players, or anything else really.  It’s part of white privilege, the privilege to be exempt from marginalization and have ownership over everything–from space to identities ….yadidameeeean??

An individual committing an individual’s crime is one thing.  But for one individual’s crime to become the focal point for the media to antagonize an entire community is another thing.   I can say more, but Vijay Prashad says it way better in his article, Can the Major Speak?



Vijay Prashad is a widely renowned professor, author, journalist and a critical voice in the progressive community.  Some of his books include “The Karma of Brown Folk”, “The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World” and “Fat Cats and Running Dogs: The Enron Stage of Capitalism”. They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but maybe by it’s title, yadeeeeeg? I didn’t want to copy and paste because that’s just lame.  Don’t be a lazy 21st century video drone…READ his article.

But I’m kind of a hater so I judge all the time.  By the looks of it, these covers are looking extra fly for the reading pasttime.

November 21, 2009 | No Comments »

Byebye Helvetica

This thing is so easy even a caveman can do it!

Homie Claud shared this with me today.  Make your own font from your handwriting in seconds.  Good times:

MAKE YOUR OWN FONT HERE

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BODEGA PUMP 20 Launch ft. Arnold

Last night I went to the BODEGA PUMP 20 LAUNCH Party and it was awesome.

One of my homies, Marv, worked on designing this shoe.  It’s funny having friends who design shoes and apparel then their shit comes out and I’m like, “YOU’RE FAMOUS!! ON HIS FEET! AND HER BREAST!”  Like when celebrity faces hit billboards except kinda not really.

The party had a cool military theme going on, with the movie PREDATOR projected on the wall.  Then I was reminded of my California days with good old governor Arnold.

How can anyone take this man seriously after this:

and this:

Based on historical patterns, it appears that the American people love voting for politicians based on religion, facial symmetry and muscles, maaaang!

Visit Bodega Here.

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CNN on the daily

I was getting my daily dose of CNN–trying to stay in the loop and shit!  I love perusing headlines all around the world and seeing snippets what’s going down.  Of course, too often than not, I’m scrolling along and the most irrelevant un-newsworthy celebrity headlines appear.

November 19, 2009 | 1 Comment »

My First Protest: Asian Americans & Activism

A few weeks back, awesome mentor, friend, inspiration and poet, Bao Phi, hit me up to contribute to his blog series on Minneapolis’ Star Tribune.  Bao is one of the most modest people I know–so he won’t tell you that he is one of the most renowned poets in America right now, a pioneer in the Asian American activist and spoken word community and definitely an icon in the Vietnamese American community (I try to be in all three spheres which makes me a major idolizer).

Bao is a TWO TIME Minnesota Grand Poetry Slam champ, TWO TIME poetry slam champ at the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York, the first Vietnamese American man to have appeared on HBO’s Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry, a National Poetry Slam Individual Finalist (where he placed 6th overall out of over 250 national slam poets) and he has a poem published in the 2006 Best American Poetry Anthology…and he has time to be friend…and a mentor…and a dedicated community activist and organizer…and more recently a proud father and partner…and…am I leaving anything out? Most likely I am. Just try Googling him and you’ll see how much I failed to mention here.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owJBY8SoBy0&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

I remember when I was just a teenage twerp doing teenage twerp poems, and Bao was one of those people who took the time to reach out to me.  At the time, I didn’t know why such a celebrity status poet made the effort to guide me (I still don’t), but I can honestly say it has been one of the most meaningful relationships in my growth as an artist, writer and Vietnamese American.  I’ll just fast forward to the point of this post now.  Bao asked me (and several others) to write a response to “My First Protest: Asian Americans and Activism” for his blog series. He recently posted it online.  Now I thought I’d share the piece I submitted:


My First Protest: Asian Americans and Activism by Yours Truly

My first protest came in the form of standing on my high school auditorium’s stage in front of several hundred people, delivering a poem by I Was Born With Two Tongues called, “Excuse Me, AmeriKKKa”.  I went to a wannabe-prestigious-snooty-attitude public high school called Boston Latin School (BLS)—also known as the first public school in America, also known as the alma mater of Benjamin Franklin, also known as the school that drives kids crazy—literally.  There was a tradition at BLS called Public Declamation—established as a custom to build public speaking skills via the works of old white men such as Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, Socrates, Thomas Jefferson and other such figures to instill us with the “time-honored tales of values and wisdom”.   During quarterly Public Declamations, every class was forced to sit in the auditorium and listen to recycled speeches surrounding the same topics such as slavery, emancipation, THIS GREAT NATION, manifest destiny and fancy colloquialisms about expansion (and the conquer everything mentality).  Month after month, the performances started to feel like an incredibly outdated sermon on loop.  I felt a sense of deceit and trickery in the conspiracy to ingrain Western colonial philosophies and the oppressive rhetoric of white legacy by means of a public speaking façade; the system had implemented a way to filter orthodox ideas through fresh faces and young voices of my own generation.  As great as my fear of the stage was, I could not bare to sit in the auditorium seat any longer and be forced to listen to the voices of old white men coming out of the mouths of my oblivious young peers.  Shoot, if people were being forced to miss class and listen to a bunch of dumb teenagers yap, then I wanted to make people listen to the Asian American experience.  So I tried out for Public Declamation.

If you know the poem, “Excuse Me, AmeriKKKa”, then you can imagine how uncomfortable that auditorium got.  If you’ve never heard of the poem before, then this post is missing the real punch-in-the-gut hit behind the thesis.  The poem is a direct address to white “Amerika” illustrating vivid and historical indictments of racism, sexism, colonialism and oppression–content so fearlessly explicit it even failed to meet the Strib’s blog-friendly publication regulations (no lie!).  It is the kind of poem to induce nervous eye-widening “Did she just say that???” reactions.  Best of all, “Excuse Me, Amerikka” is a poem for the pumping fist and double middle fingers waving defiantly in the air.

I must admit, looking back at these lines and the look of horror it put on every teenage twerp’s face, makes for a hilarious memory.  Teachers and advisors absolutely hated the idea of me performing this piece.  They tried convincing me to do Shakespeare instead.  They felt I was tarnishing the image and reputation of a classical tradition.  They did everything they could to keep me off that stage.  But I resisted.  And eventually they ran out of arguments to justify their stance.  So there I was.  The quiet fifteen year old Vietnamese girl all the teachers thought were so sweet and innocent (because she always handed in her homework on time) taking the stage to drop some F bombs and scream about how messed up Amerikkka is to a bunch of juvenile dirtbags and pink flamingo owners.  I soon became known as the “Angry Asian Girl” which interestingly made the Asian kids like me more, the white kids kiss up to me and the teachers plain confused.

CHECK OUT HIS BLOG AND MORE STORIES ON THIS SERIES HERE.

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REFUGEE STATE OF MIND T-Shirt Release!

Proud to present the first t-shirt off the RIOT IN THE SKY grind.  Conceived and designed by yours truly.


FRONT:


BACK:


*FYI, “www.RIOTINTHESKY.com” is hanging verticle on the far right of the shirt’s back in small font.


T-Shirt Tag Statement:

This t-shirt was inspired by a lot of things: my parents, my people’s history, American society, war, fucked up capitalist politics, invisible bodies, the hustling class, the everyday to everyday, floods, visionaries, galaxies and Jay-Z.

I hope to shed light on the history of the Refugee in America and globally, while connecting all people by universal concepts of life, hustle and love.  Look out for a future blog series, RSM Today & Back in the Day (or a better title TBD)   to profile extraordinary individuals who got that Refugee State of Mind.

ON THE MERCH TIP
I am currently working on setting up a PayPal account to be accessed from my official website.  This should be available by December 1st or sooner.  T-shirts are $20+shipping.  Available in black or black.  Place a pre-order now by emailing: info@RIOTINTHESKY.com to secure item. Please indicate size for Men (S, M, L, XL, XXL) or for Women (S, M, L, XL).  I will only be taking orders for 2009 up til December 15th.  Any orders after December 15th will not be handled and shipped until January 3rd.  Be a homie and tell a homie. Holla.

To give you a better idea of what these designs would look like on t-shirts.  Photoshop courtesy of my big sis:


November 18, 2009 | 4 Comments »

Mus Def DOWNLOAD: ib4the1.1 by iLL-Literacy



DOWNLOAD IMMEDIATELY!

Boys, boys, boys, boys…boys I do adore…

I remember the first time I saw iLL-Literacy perform.  It was back in the fall of 2005, I was visitin iLL homie Adriel in the Bay and I was their default road dawg for the day as we drove 2 hours back and forth from Berkeley to Santa Cruz.  I was so geeked when I got put in charge of protecting their GET LIT lighters and chapbooks at the merch table while they put their game faces on in the green room.  Needless to say, the show was bangin’!  With opening 8 bars to spitfire poems, I found myself slipping further into the present moment with the onrush of words.  Over the years, I’ve taken great indulgence in seeing their artistic evolution reshape creative fronts and constantly inspire all those around them.  Don’t be fooled, there is so much honesty behind those plastic legohead facades.  Never settling, always innovating, the first release of iLL-Literacy’s ib4the1 marks only the beginning of a mouthwatering adventure to unfold.  GOOD SHIT!

Holla,

Track Listing for iB4the1.1:
1. HihowRu
Additional contributions by Smashley Johns (vocals)

2. Gentleman’s Kool-Aid
Additional contributions by Rufus Redbone (vocals) & Billy Hi-Life (bass)

3. The HereNow
Additional contributions by Jeremy “Passion” Manongdo (vocals), Billy Hi-Life (bass) & Sammy Hi-Life (guitar)

4. Finding Emo
Additional contributions by Ruby Veridiano-Ching (vocals),

5. Circus Nights
Additional contributions by Rufus Redbone (vocals) & Sammy Hi-Life (guitar)

All songs produced by Dahlak, co-produced by Ada Clock

About iB4the1.1: iB4the1 is an epic. The debut album from iLL-Literacy premiers in three parts– each approximately 25 minutes in length, and suited best for a short car drive…or upon the back of a spiny-toothed wombat in Africa, while watching Planet Earth on mute. The first of the three acts is simply entitled iB4the1.1. Despite its brevity,.1 is grand in its effort to bridge sampled voice and original instrumentation, experimental music and hip-hop narrative.

The sound of iLL-Literacy—architected by group member Dahlak with the assistance of producer Ada Clock, along with the contributing imaginations of N.I.C and Drizzletron—draws character from an unusual blend of influences, spanning funk, afro beat, alternative, soul and of course hip-hop.  iB4the1 is a presentation of iLL-Literacy in total humility and acknowledgement to all those who have come before and to the artists they are to become. This is iLL-Lit before the start. The prequel to the saga. iLL-Lit before the One. Take that how you want.

About iLL-Literacy: Toggling between daydream and full-blown hallucination, iLL-Literacy is a music and performance collective that fuses elements of funk, hip-hop, spoken word, and interactive theatre for a sound and live experience that draws as much from the rich artistic and political history of its Oakland hometown as it does from the experimental and imaginative inclinations of its current Brooklyn base.  In their recorded debut, iB4the1, members Dahlak, N.i.C, and Drizzletron work everything from the ground up – from in-house production, to self-directed music videos, to the development of a new approach to musical interaction that intimately involves the listener throughout the inception, production, and promotion of the final product.  Please join iLL-Literacy at www.ill-literacy.com.

REAL LIFE HOMIES MAKING REAL LIFE BEDDA.  ILL-LIT WIT THAT LEGITIMATE SHIIIIIT!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bYRd4fUglk&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

November 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Guerilla Sketch

This is the sketch I was suppose to paint yesterday–but the weather was wet and rainy.  So we’re going to save it for another day.  RSM in his teeth is a prequel to my t-shirt design that will be released THIS WEDNESDAY! Check back soon.

November 16, 2009 | No Comments »

Sunday Confession

As I continue to grapple with the narcissism that comes with blogging, I’m still sculpting and developing my blog’s identity to be readworthy.  My posting patterns have shown that I tend to do at least one major personal update a week, with random viewpoints, current events, art and music snippets, suggestive titles etc . sprinkled throughout the week.  So this new post series will be called “Sunday Confession” where I will give you my most thorough update on projects and progress from the week!

BLOGGY BLOG
* How’s the new color scheme?!!?!? You can tell I’ve been having some fun in revamping my blog.  After enough complaints about the legibility of black font on brown wood BG, I finally changed the BG color.
* I added a new *UPCOMING PROJECTS* page!
* You can now subscribe to my blog via whatever means you want.  Check the sidebar!!
* I finally decided to type with proper capitalization on my blog.  I think it will make people take me more seriously. =P

WEBSITE
* Exciting, exciting things are in store for my full website.  I missed California so much I changed the background.  Now it feels like I’m transported to Venice Beach every time I enter it.  I’m working on adding an email subscriber option, PayPal option and new photos to the gallery.
* Expect to see new additions in the first week of December

ART & WRITING
* I’ve been on the writing game, prepping new and old poems for my chapbook to be released December 8th!! Only 50 hard copies will be printed, and this will be available on my website for pay-what-you-want.
* My first t-shirt design is going into printing this week.  I will be releasing the design later in the week.
* Prepping for my Solo Art Show at UCLA.  Opening day is November 30th.
* We were suppose to go painting today but the weather was too wet.  I’ll scan & upload my sketch tomorrow.


MY VERY SPECIAL THANKS & Confession

Amidst all the grind, I was surprised with some hella good news this week.  My site is receiving lots of traffic in less than 2 months.  I don’t know how this is suppose to compare, but it really doesn’t matter.  All that matters is that I’m happy my art is reaching out to people.   I must admit, as an independent artist pushing many fronts, sometimes I lose my focus.  I love painting, writing and creating–but every so often I can’t help but question, “What for?  Where is this all going?”  Even though I can’t always see my clear destination in the horizon, I know I must be on the right path.  The number is definitely comforting to a one-woman-show most of the time, trying to do a million jobs at once–writing, painting, creating, envisioning, innovating, business planning, managing, organizing, communicating, etc.  It’s not an ideal situation for an artist to be at conflict with creation time versus management time–mostly because I want to make sure I’m always practicing my craft, thinking of new ways to forward the art form and not just exploit it for promotional gain.  As a female artist and performer in a male-dominated world, I easily get self-conscious.  My own skepticism and self-doubt adds extra weight in my effort to carve my way through this world.  So the positive feedback most definitely helps.  It heightens my belief that if you go after what you believe (even when you don’t always know where it will lead you), the world will have your back.  So THANK YOU to everyone who’s supported me and/or shared my work with others.  Let’s keep building.  Love, sahra.

P.S. Gots GOSTA to give props to my blogdawg for life, MikeyG, for being a teacher, a friend and my webmaster!! For which none of this would’ve been possible without him.  Don’t sleep: www.student17.com

Me & Mikey in NYC (Same outfit as my profile pic? Yes. Same day? Questionable.)

sahra nguyen mikeyg

Chillin outside a mini mart with Cali homie, Drizzy.  I’m trying to remember what we were talking about that made my face so twisted, but I must not have been happy.

sahra nguyen mikey g drizzy NYC

November 15, 2009 | No Comments »

Rhianna is NOT the “Woman of the Year”

rihanna-glamour-abc-album

I’m not talking about her as a pop singer.  I’m not talking about talent (or lack thereof).  I am not condoning domestic violence.  I am not taking sides in the Rhianna Chris Brown beatdown fiasco.  This is simply about the bugging fact that Glamour Magazine announced Rhianna as their 2009 “Woman of the Year”, and I absolutely ABSOLUTELY disagree. I think it was a courageous stepping stone for Rhianna to finally publicly speak out against domestic violence, but a 30 minute interview with Diane Sawyer is far from suffice to crown her as “Woman of the Year”.  The question will stand: if Rhianna did not get beat, would she still be “Woman of the Year?”  With this award, we should think about how we want to celebrate women in the world and what kind of accomplishments we wish to recognize.  We should also acknowledge that accomplishments are not always reactionary.  Rather, it is truly commendable when individuals are proactive in their willingness to step outside their daily comfort zone and commit to a long term vision.  When you are in a position of power and influence (as Rhianna, especially with young girls), it BECOMES your responsibility to speak out against these things, whether you want to or not.  It is a gift and a curse, to be such a high profile individual in the public eye.  A gift because you have the power to positively impact people via massive means.  A curse because the burden of social responsibility is always with you.  But social responsibility is something that many people have a hard time accepting.  And we ALL have social responsibility–celebrity status or not.  We all have social responsibility to do whatever is within our capacity to better our world. (So bigger capacity = bigger means).  It is a product of consciousness, so folks can choose to be about it or not (welcome to the Matrix…).   So now, it’s almost as if Rhianna did something she is SUPPOSE to–EXPECTED to do, then does it and gets an award.  She did an interview.  But that’s it.  What else has she done to deeply address the issue?  How is she overextending herself above and beyond expectations to make great accomplishments to society, like some of her previously celebrated “Woman of the Year” allies, MICHELLE OBAMA and MAYA ANGELOU (uhm, I know. Rhianna who?).  Wait a minute, Rhianna is releasing her new album in two weeks.  INCREDIBLE!!

Pro bono? or say promo?

Previous “Women of the Year”:


Michelle Obama


Maya Angelou

mama nujin
my mom!! she’s woman of the year every year, obviously.

While are on the topic of high profile artists, “Woman of the Year” and domestic violence victims, I must say that WHITNEY HOUSTON is an incredible example of strength and beauty.  While most of us may never know the full details of Whitney’s “lost years” due to drug addiction, substance abuse and domestic abuse, she is truly a star to be recognized for her perseverance and courage.  This year she released an amazing album, in which many have criticized her voice as sounding weak and worn (too much crack?).  There is no question that her voice is not the same.  But it is like a soldier going through a battlefield and coming out a survivor.  The soldier is going to rise out of that experience with some battle scars.  Whitney’s voice may not be the “same”, but the scar in her voice shows the power in her as an individual to step out of her challenges and still create powerful, soul touching music.  This song by Whitney Houston says more than Rhianna’s interview with Diane Sawyer.  Enjoy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiMl8UcXOLs&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

November 14, 2009 | 8 Comments »

DON'T SLEEP ON THE DOWNLOAD: JARELL PERRY

The highly anticipated mixtape by Jarell Perry is finally here!!! DOWNLOAD NOW.

When everybody is talking about the fiery cosmic collision from outer space to mark the end of the world in 2012, Jarell Perry is a rising star shooting straight into the future.  Even after I shed all my best biases about my best buddy, I can still say he is one of the most talented artists currently on the grind.  I’ve seen JP independently hustle his way through the music industry, from webcam cover songs to international collaborations.  With every move he makes, he most definitely knows how to leave a lasting impression.  Above all, his music is amazing.  Bringing back the true groove of R&B, he writes and sings his own songs.  He used to produce his own music until OTHER music producers started throwing themselves at JP for the chance to make music FOR him to sing on.  Everyone’s trying to get JP to slap his name on their shit.  Good shit.  Enjoy the free download while you can, because this homie is most definitely getting signed very very soon.  Watch out now.

I take hella pride in being able to say “That’s MY homie!!!!”

Visit his full website at www.JarellPerry.com :

What does the title of On My Own, the first full-length mixtape from singer-songwriter Jarell Perry, really mean for the rising R&B artist?

As JP will tell you himself, the long-awaited release mostly serves as a testament to the last two years spent forging his path to a big break: producing and/or writing all of his own material, attracting thousands of new fans by designing his own website, Myspace, and YouTube series, and playing countless shows at L.A. clubs and his alma mater, UCLA.

On My Own, set for viral release on Friday, November 13th, is a part of that story. “It’s really a picture of where I’ve been and where I’m going, musically speaking,” he says. The destination? A smart blend of inspirational R&B, piano-pop, and hip-hop swing. Enlisting the help of top indie producers like The Skiii Team, UniqueSound Ent., Nobody Famous, Mr. Clean, Mike Rizzy, and Vizion, Jarell is careful to mention that none of it would’ve been possible without gifted collaborators, true friends, and a growing band of international supporters. “I think the real moral of my story is that you’re never alone.”

After stumbling upon the recording game his freshman year in college, Jarell Perry quickly rose from ten-dollar RadioShack microphones to in-studio writing sessions for major-label artists. Most of this album, however, was written in the humble apartment studio where he feels the most comfortable. Recent followers will be pleased to find crowd favorites like “Indestructible”, “Change Your Mind”, and “Universal Love” on this release along with many others.

November 13, 2009 | No Comments »

this shit is sexy as fuck

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFQ8UEXVDIw&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Eminem – Forever (Travis Barker Remix)

let me tell you why this video turns me on.  it’s not travis barker’s scrawny white ass.  it’s the ugly in his face when he’s playing.  fo serious.  that’s how you can judge if people are for real.  if they are willing to get UGLY WID IT.  if even in our self-conscious, self-telecast, self-absorbed vanity world, we can drop the pretty fresh pretty front to forget how we look in a moment of true life before the scrutinizing eye.  we are willing to free ourselves from the inhibitions of how we want the world to see us–and just fly.  no matter how ugly or twisted our face looks against the wind.  travis just took this track to a whole new level.  it’s almost as if i could feel the labor of his love engulfing my entire body.  most videos/performances can make the viewer feel like a spectator on the other side of the 4th wall.  few performances (like this one) are successful in making the viewer feel like a participant in a transformative experience.  as a female artist, i’m always conscious of my image in the public eye in not wanting to appear so conscious of my image in the public eye. honestly, sexy is an easy formula: wear less and talk less.  even a dummy can do that.  and i’m not a dummy so i can definitely do that.  but i’m not a dummy so do i want to do that?

it’s a little like sex.  butt-naked action brings us to an over exposed and defenseless position with nothing to hide behind.  in order for you to really maximize the pleasure of the experience, you gota be willing to get ugly wid it. hahaaaa! ;)

November 12, 2009 | 2 Comments »

cause this is thrillerrrrrrrrr!!!!

MJ collabo by swat & sahra
Michael Jackson collabo by HOTSWAT & ME | spray paint on canvas | 48 x 72 in | summer 2009

this fly ass painting is finally up  sale!! $750 or best offer

inspired by the life and art of Michael Jackson, swizzy and i spray painted a special tribute.  CAUSE THIS IS THRILLERRRRRRRRRR!!!!! THRILLER NIGHT!!!! ’nuff said.

holla at me for details.

you can watch the making of this painting in a  time lapse video on my website. hit the “VIDEO” page: www.RIOTINTHESKY.com

November 11, 2009 | 2 Comments »
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