Arrival in Barangay Baras: A Peace Corps Blog
"Be careful! Be careful for your head!" my nanay Rowena warned as I stepped into my kwartol, nevermind that the doorway was seven feet tall and I didn't reach six.
The room that would be my bedroom for the next 3 months was, by New York standards, spacious--a bed and a half in length & width. I had no clue what Filipino standards were but I had a sneaky feeling I'd been given the largest room in the bal ... more
Aug 26 Philippines Education 101: A Peace Corps Blog
The two things I liked most about the first days of orientation were, number one, walking around our extremely posh compound/jail (we were virtual prisoners at a resort in Cavite City) seeing so many new but familiar faces, most of which I could attach names to, sharing sna ... more
Aug 23
Lifting Off: A Peace Corps Blog
* names were changed for confidentiality *
This is a story about waiting in a very large airplane before said airplane lifts off for a 20-hour flight from JFK International Airport to Aquino International Airport. And though it has nothing to do with the point of the story, you might be interested to note that both airports were named after assassinated political figures. The point of the story is being present.
We we ... more
Aug 19
The Trip to Staging
I spent the five hour flight to Peace Corps staging reading an account of Greg Mortenson, a mountain climber turned Karakoram-humanitarian-school-builder. Which is a mouthful. But so is his work: from 1993 to 2003, Mortenson raised funds for, then built, 55 schools for girls. The book, Three Cups of Tea, stylistically speaking, wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. I blanched at some of the purplish prose passages that obtrusively fetishize the man, such a ... more
Aug 12
Hanggang (Tagalog Song)
A week before leaving for the Philippines, when I should have been ... more
Aug 5
The Salinger Emails: 15 New Manuscripts
These emails were written between February and April 2010, immediately following the death of J.D. Salinger:
Read the Salinger publication emails
Aug 4
Packing for 2 Years: A Peace Corps Blog
Prior to joining the Peace Corps I taught college writing in California, and one of the sections I loved to teach was film analysis, and one of the films I loved using was Gran Torino, a 2008 Clint Eastwood flick. In it, the venerable actor plays a grumpity old crotchety old man trying to live out his life in a rough Detroit neighborhood which is getting rougher by the day.
I would tell my students that the film, though set in cont ... more
Jul 23
Let Go: A Brooklyn Short
Originally written for and performed at Penny's Open Mic, June 2010. Story, voicing, and animation by Mark Fullmer. ... moreJul 22
Social Networking: A Peace Corps Blog
At the end of July, I spent one morning in a Hasidic-neighborhood Brooklyn doctor's office getting my H1N1 vaccination (as required for Peace Corps service). In the waiting room I watched two women recite their morning prayers, their fingers gliding over the Hebrew prayer books in their laps. Every few minutes one of them would rise from her seat, arms raised in supplication. Their devotion was a little mezmerizing. I realized that, for these women, their entire lives had been lived in the ... more
Jul 16
MAIDS: An Open Mic Reading
Written for and performed at Penny's Open Mic, July 14, 2010. ... moreJul 15
A Comedy about Suicide / the Silly Side of the Sex Industry
Imagine a black stage, bleak light, a blacker and bleaker litter of empty Jim Beams and Bellows. Imagine lugubrious neo-gypsy dixieland in the background. Center stage, imagine a washtub. Inside said washtub, a razor, pills, a .357 magnum--even a rooftop perfect for swan dive--and a wiry body full of strife and vulnerability but also oddly full life, a body on the cusp of ending that life.
Penny Pollak's "No Traveler: a comedy about suicide" ... more
Jul 14
1337: A Game Novel is now a custom paperback
Last week, I published the final chapter of my new novel, 1337: A Game Novel.
That day, as I sat finalizing the FBML programming, I paused for a moment to look back through the mess of files contained in my "1337" computer folder, a grand total of 622 files in 21 subfolders totaling 519 megabytes.
... moreJul 10
A Guide to the Garden District
Recently a friend asked for a New Orleans to-do list. I'd spent the month of April there, living in the Lower Garden District, spending my days writing a novel in coffeeshops on Magazine Street, my nights doing NOLA nightlife my own way. Every weekend was given to one of the many music fests the city hosts during April--French Quarter Fest, Crawfest, Riverfest, and of course JazzFest (the only non-free one).
It was a near perfect-ten month. A lot of people think the French Quar ... more
Jul 5
Jacques Derrida in 1 Minute
Introduces the post-structuralist philosophies of Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) in one minute flat. Bonus 15-second deconstructive literary analysis of Lord of the Rings ... moreJul 2
Chapter 27 Released! 1337: A Game Novel
Chapter 27 of my new novel is now online! You can play it, free, at apps.facebook.com/leetnovel. Below, a teasy teaser:
clicking noises coming from the back of the room in the room there were rows and rows of machines, millions of them and huge and metallic, sharp knife things coming out of them at all angles. Teeth. Forcep knife blade things twitching ... more