Today of course we’re talking about Failure, since it’s such a useful and versatile frame.

Actually, we’re not really going to be talking right now (even in the blog sense of “talking), since I’m really just announcing here that we will be talking about failure later tonight, for the second installment of the Failure Series* on WHFR (washington heights free radio), with audio/sound producer Greg Mailloux.

Greg produces a podcast called Manner of Speaking, and we’ll be focusing the conversation on two particular projects which didn’t quite yield the anticipated (or at least originally anticipated) results. Or, at least, that’s the idea. We could totally fail to accomplish this task, in which case we Totally Win at the Failure Series.

We** like Winning.

I need an image to accompany the WHFR Failure Series description on their web page; right now it’s a randomly generated image from WHFR’s image database (the image that appeared last time I clicked on the link is featured above. And I just refreshed the page, and here’s the next thing that appears:

which is cute, in an unsettling way, and is certainly interesting when viewed with the other one, through the lens of “Failure Series.” What could these images possibly mean? It’s like a Rorschach test). Any suggestions?

(Which reminds me I also need business cards. For my imaginary business. [Well, it's not Imaginary so much as Not Business-y; I'm not denigrating my work, here, for those of you who are genuinely concerned about my self esteem. No cause for alarm.])

In other, totally unrelated news: the short film ASIAN AMERICAN JESUS, directed by Yasmine Gomez, & written/performed-in-part by me, will be screening at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (April 28-May 7) and in Eugene, Oregon at the Disorient Film Festival (April 29-May 1)

*Not to be confused with the Failures Series, the full-length play (in development), or the Failure Series, the solo show in development, or the Failure Series, the Life.

**Here “we” is used in the sense of just me—I wouldn’t want to suggest that Greg would say something like “We like Winning,” with a capital ‘w.’ It’s not a Royal We so much as a Makes Me Feel Less Alone Me.***

***Which isn’t intended to provoke any “awww”s of sympathy; I just thought it was a funny thing to say; we all thought it was a funny thing to say.

I haven’t posted in a while, it’s true; no argument, there. I was just feeling out the limits of my identity as Irregular & Unreliable Blogger.

But I did just post on the VIP series blog (designed by one of my favorite peoples in the world).

So below is the text of the post, just so I’m adding some content to the rambles section… but I suggest visiting the VIP site, itself.

next up in VIP series: locked house

Hello. Hi. Thanks for visiting.

We hereby announce the next installment of Theaterly Activity in the 2010-2011 Very Important Plays Series. Huzzah!

March 4-6, 2011, VIP presents a workshop production of

Locked House:
a tragicomic fairytale of indeterminate nature

written by Samantha Chanse | directed by Lisa Szolovits | dramaturgy by Jay Jaski
sound design by Greg Mailloux | projection/graphic design by Derek Chung | light design by Ryan Seelig

Featuring:

Sahr Ali*
Gail Behrens*
Katie Lee Hill
David Shih*
Bonna Tek

Show Information & Reservations:

Location: Columbia University, Schapiro Studio, 605 W. 115th Street, between Broadway and Riverside (NYC).

Show Dates/Times:
Friday, March 4 @ 8 PM
Saturday, March 5 @ 2 PM
Saturday, March 5 @ 8 PM
Sunday, March 6 @ 2PM

Cost/Reservations: ADMISSION IS FREE.
To reserve tickets, email VeryImportantPlays@gmail.com

For artist bios and more information please click here.

* Actors appear courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association.

Hey all,

I’ll be brief! Since some of us have entered a Holiday Vortex and have no time for not-brief things!

For your reading pleasure, each pithy bullet-point announcement will be followed by a pithy punctuation mark of a pithy exclamatory nature! [*see below for Note About Off-Putting & Poorly-Conceived Stylistic Choice!]

Two events upcoming, as possible Artful Oases from the Holiday Blur (not that there’s anything wrong with Holiday Blur [& okay: already I tire of Off-Putting & Poorly-Conceived Stylistic Choice; there are limits of decency, after all]):

1. Sunday, December 12th; 7-9pm
Solo Sundays at Stagewerx, 533 Sutter Street @ Powell (San Francisco); $10
Featuring Mary Van Note, Laurie Guerin, and Samantha Chanse
Three solo performances as part of Bruce Pachtman’s Solo Sundays series; I’ll be performing a version of Back to the Graveyard–this one with music, possibly. What fun!
Tickets here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/138847
Facebook event page with more information here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=155755287802994

2. Wednesday, December 15th; 6.30-9pm
Laundry Party Public at KSW, 1246 Folsom, between 8th & 9th sts (San Francisco); $5-10 suggested
A laid-back, stress-free evening featuring presentations/performances by Claire Light, The Matinees, Brandon Bigelow, Thy Tran, Samantha Chanse, and others, possibly.
Music! Neo-Benshi! Readings! Uh, other things!
(Not so much) more information here: http://www.whiskeyandacigarette.org/calendar/index.php?op=view&id=465

(I think we’ll just stick with those things, for now; March 4-6, 2010, is the VIP series production of a new play of mine called The Failure Series, at Columbia University. Or it may end up being a production of another new play, Locked House; we shall see. More info for that series is here: http://viplays.wordpress.com/about/).

That is all. Hope you’re all well, and thanks for reading,

sam

*Note About Off-Putting & Poorly-Conceived Stylistic Choice!
Off-putting & Poorly-Conceived Stylistic Choice (OP&PCSC) serves to Alienate The Reader (and Writer), creating a Destabilizing Space Of Disquiet (DSOD) that will defamiliarize the familiar and, ultimately, elevate the blah of daily routine to new & excellent heights!**

** Due to writer’s distaste, OP&PCSC was dropped half-way through the email, so beneficial effects of DSOD remain yet to be proven.

Hey all,

A few announcements of Stuffs Upcoming, starting with:

1. Tomorrow/Today/The Past (depending), Sunday, November 7th; 11am-7pm (NY)
(I’m on 11am-12pm, for those of you who like relatively early morning literary adventures)
Page Turner: Asian American Literary Festival (AAWW)
Venue: PowerHouse Books, 37 Main St Brooklyn, NY, NY
Featuring a number of artists of a writerly nature, including but not limited to: Meena Alexander, Gina Apostol, Henry Chang, Samantha Chanse, Susan Choi, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Luis H. Francia, Sarah Gambito, V.V. Ganeshananthan, Fred Ho, Young-ha Kim, Myung-mi Kim, Hari Kondabolu, Amitava Kumar, Tan Lin, Tao Lin, Jerry Ma, Karan Mahajan, Cate Marvin, Nami Mun, Manijeh Nasrabadi, Wena Poon, Richard Price, Iraj Isaac Rahmim, Bino A. Realuyo, Akhil Sharma, Roger Shimomura, Sung J. Woo, Tim Wu, Jeff Yang, and Monica Youn
More info: http://pageturnerfest.org/#pageturner

2. Sunday, December 12th; 7pm (SF)
Solo Sundays at Stage Werx
Venue: 533 Sutter St, @ Powell; San Francisco, CA
Next installment in Bruce Pachtman’s solo performances series; this one’s featuring Mary Van Note & Samantha Chanse * (for Totally Exciting But Unnecessary Combination Asterisked-Parenthetical-Remark Footnote, please scroll down).
More info: http://www.stagewerx.org

3. Tuesday, December 14th; 6pm (NY)
Levy Lives: celebrating the renegade press
Venue: Chelsea’s ACA Galleries, 529 W.20th St., 5th Floor, NY, NY
Featuring readings by Kaya Press writers Ed Lin, Thaddeus Rutkowski, Samantha Chanse, and others from independent presses. Event also includes a nine-piece jazz flash orchestra for Chax Press. Wine and other refreshments will be provided.
(note: not entirely sure about the details of this one, but I wanted to include it as a save the date, and assume the information’s correct, for now.)
More info on Kaya Press: http://www.kaya.com

4. March 4-6, 2011; various times (NY)
The Failures Series/Slip Away
as part of The Very Important Plays Series
Venue: Schapiro Studio at Columbia University, 605 W. 115th Street, between Broadway & Riverside, NY, NY
Isn’t advance notice fun? I think advance notice is fun. The series is going on all year, though—as we (virtually) speak, in fact!—so it’s not really advance notice; but advance notice for The Failure Series production in particular.
More info: http://viplays.wordpress.com/
(note: the graphic design on the website was created by the incredible Jenifer Wofford; we the series writers humbly thank her.)

Okay. I think this is all for now; thanks for reading.

Much love, mad respect,

sam

*Totally Exciting But Unnecessary Combination Asterisked-Parenthetical-Remark Footnote!
(Is it weird & unseemly when I talk about myself in the third person? I think it’s weird & unseemly. I’m not trying to be obnoxious, but rather Clear & Consistent in my Stuffs Events Listings Protocol (SELP). Which includes: Unnecessary Acronyms (UA); Random Acts of Capitalization (RAC); Asterisked Footnotes (AF); and long, rambling parenthetical statements that serve primarily to entertain The Gentle Writer and, perhaps, some like-minded, endlessly patient, Gentle Readers out there.)

So a lot of people ask me, “Hey, Sam. Why is Laundry Party so awesome?”

And I usually respond, “Well, it’s complicated, and hard to explain. Sort of like trying to explain God. Or water.”

But I get asked this question so often, along with so many other LP-related questions, that I thought now might be a good time to issue an LP-FAQ. Especially with an LP Public coming up next week (and next month! it is so exciting, isn’t it, when a date is both next week AND next month? it’s a circumstance so exquisite & lovely, it’s almost miraculous. Like God. Or water.).

(Ahem: Tuesday, July 6th, at our very own KSW! 1246 Folsom! 6.30pm! Yay!)

So, here it is. Your Frequently Asked Questions about Laundry Party, finally answered.

LP FAQ (#1 in a series of unknown quantity)

In this FAQ:
What’s a Laundry Party?
I heard that LPs usually feature multidisciplinary art presentations at various stages of development, scintillating discussion & vigorous debate, free booze, random hookups, meaningless and/or meaningful sex, food, socially awkward moments, pathos, and celebrity sightings. Is that true?
Who is featured at this upcoming LP?
When are you going to stop using that “like God. or water.” joke? it’s getting old.
Why are you getting defensive?
Why is Laundry Party so awesome?
Can I be part of Laundry Party?
What’s a Laundry Party?
I know, but you said you’d provide a longer version at the end of this FAQ.

What’s a Laundry Party?
Good question! Laundry Party is a laidback, multidisciplinary salon-style series that takes place in LP-people’s living rooms, and occasionally at your neighborhood bar, cafe, and/or arts nonprofit organization. See below for a longer description!

^ top

I heard that LPs usually feature multidisciplinary art presentations at various stages of development, scintillating discussion & vigorous debate, free booze, random hookups, meaningless and/or meaningful sex, food, socially awkward moments, pathos, and celebrity sightings. Is that true?
Uh. Some of it. I don’t know. Like, half of that’s true. I mean, maybe it’s all true? I haven’t been to all of them. Have I been missing out? In any case, this LP Public on 7/1 will feature everything above except for the random hookups & sex parts; this is a family friendly event, kids.

^ top

Who is featured at this upcoming LP?
So many amazing people are featured at this upcoming LP Public, it defies the imagination. Like God. Or water.
The line-up includes: Allan Manalo, Cathlin Goulding, Derek Chung, Isaac Hill, Jim Espinas/Bantercut, Mahru Elahi, Melissa Hung (showing work featuring The Invisible Cities), Samantha Chanse, Yasmine Gomez

^ top

When are you going to stop using that “like God. or water.” joke? it’s getting old.
Uh, I already did. I stopped. That last time was the last time. Okay?

^ top

Why are you getting defensive?
I’m not. I’m not getting defensive. Why do you think I’m getting defensive?

^ top

Why is Laundry Party so awesome?
I think I speak for Everyone In The World when I say: the question is, “Why isn’t it awesome?”

^ top

Can I be part of Laundry Party?
Yes! Just email laundryparty (at) gmail (dot) com. Uh, and if that doesn’t work, email me at laundryparty (at) whiskeyandacigarette (dot) org.

^ top

What’s a Laundry Party?
You already asked me that.

^ top

I know, but you said you’d provide a longer version at the end of this FAQ.
Oh. Right. Sorry. My bad.
Laundry Party is a laidback, multidisciplinary salon-style series that takes place in LP-people’s living rooms, and occasionally at your neighborhood bar, cafe, and/or arts nonprofit organization. Founded in January 2009 by a couple of San Francisco artists looking for mini-deadlines and more opportunities to bask in community glow, LP has since expanded its sphere of activity to encompass New York City. Now a bicoastal laidback, multidisciplinary salon-style series for people with projects at various stages of development (and/or for people who support people with projects [PWP]), LP takes place on either coast a couple times a month, give or take a time, and every so often goes public.

^ top

okay. here concludes LP FAQ #1.

so two brief things that i hope to have time to elaborate on later – but right now i just need to get this up before i forget, as i promised a friend i would add a new post to The Rambles AKA My Crappy Blog section of my website by last night, which didn’t happen. so i made an executive decision to retroactively modify my use of the word  ”tonight” and give it a more figurative, less literal, meaning; so that when i said “i’ll make a new post tonight” what i really meant was “i’ll make a new post whenever, but probably sometime this weekend, or before monday, or something.”

i can do shit like that; it was my pledge/promise. i feel totally Justified.

but two things!

so there are some bars to which i am deeply indebted, for a number of reasons. for instance, some bars have five-dollar maker’s mark; some bars let you smoke (hardly any now, though, and i suppose that’s why they’re precious, since i wouldn’t want all bars to allow people to smoke, anyway); some bars are reliably not packed & annoying even on fridays & saturdays, but still somehow manage to stay in business; some bars have outdoor patios which are lovely.

and some bars let humans do cool events there for free.

so i had two experiences this weekend with Bars To Which I Am Indebted & Of Which I Am Enamored for that particular reason:

1. Ding Dong Lounge hosted a brilliant event yesterday/saturday called May Day, an all-day-into-night small press/zine expo that also had a line up of readers/performers. i was fortunate enough to be included in that line up. but the day overall was wonderful, and i thoroughly enjoyed hearing people’s work, handling people’s very exciting publications (that sounded dirty &/or creepy, although i didn’t mean it that way), and meeting good peoples. the organizers run their own presses, including Fractious Press and Kaboom! Press.

and here’s a link about the event: http://maydaydingdong.blogspot.com/

the folks who work at Ding Dong are also some of my favorite peoples. i’m just saying.

2. Botanica Bar hosted an event of my friends’ & my devising, laboriously entitled “3people + Laundry Party Public = People Doing Stuff at Botanica Bar.”

okay, so the formula/equation part of it was added pretty much at the event itself, but i think it still counts. i think we were billing it as “people doing stuff at botanica bar” and then explaining that it was 3people & LP public. but these are just details…i don’t think anyone cares but me, about the actual math. but i care. and my caring will somehow, somewhere, have an impact. or something.

3people consisted of theater artist Julia May Jonas, poet & editor Jocelyn Burrell, and me. we all did new stuffs, so it was totally Fresh and Raw and Dynamic and Innovative and Groundbreaking and all those adjectives that make art sound fundable. the bar was blissfully empty except for people there for the event and the bartender (not because the bar’s unpopular, but because people generally don’t start arriving until 9pm, when karaoke starts at botanica. the karaoke DJ at botanica, by the way, is in my opinion top notch). Botanica let us use their elegant & sumptuous backroom (uh, sumptuous by cool dive bar standards, natch), so we all felt very cozy & cared for & authentically nyc-dive-barry. okay, no one said that, or expressed anything like that at all, but i feel like putting words & thoughts in other people’s mouths, without any justification or basis at all. because i’m in a rush, which causes me to make sloppy summations of events (like, you know, capturing a mood for the evening,which should never be done in a sloppy fashion, but i’m doing it anyway. i Fail.).

and then we moved into Laundry Party Public portion of night, after an invigorating intermission, and poet & fiction writer Bushra Rehman read, and Derek Chung presented his Volunteer Crew presentation, and writer Nina Sharma read, followed by Warren Tong, and Torrey Townsend, and Quincy Scott Jones.

and it was a lovely night, although i sadly couldn’t stay for the karaoke starting up, but i think i can (this time) quite safely & accurately say that people overall were Inspired & shit.

cheers to all the cool bars.

my friend Tom Connors & i made a music video to submit to the CAAM/KSW/Locus DIY music video contest. the music video is for the bantercut song “everything is going right”; bantercut being a now bicoastal band that includes bassist Jim Espinas, guitarist Ian Johnson, and me.

Jim & Ian made a video for another bantercut tune, “when it’s cold.”

the video with the most views by March 3rd wins a spot in the 28th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, produced by the Center for Asian American Media.

Oh the Potential Honor; the Potential Glory.

Please to visit www.asianamericanmedia.org/videos to view “everything is going right”, “when it’s cold”, and the other videos in the contest.

& if you feel so inclined, please rate the video after watching.

If you’re innerested, please to visit http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bantercut for more information about the bantercut album.

Simply writing the title of this post sent me off on a mini-journey across cyberspace, as I realized that I wasn’t exactly sure what the word “liminal” meant, and yet I was going to use it in my subject line. I thought I was pretty sure what it meant, but not entirely, so I looked it up.

The first entry for the word on Dictionary.com told me, not very helpfully (but intriguingly), that “liminal” was an adjective meaning “of, pertaining to, or situated at the limen”; leading me to find (belatedly in life, since I don’t know why I didn’t already know this) that the word “limen” means “threshold.”

And, interestingly enough, Prague/Praha also means “threshold.”

So. I am writing from the airport in Prague, a liminal space in a liminal space. It’s a crazy hall of mirrors or something!

Anyway, the entry is intriguing, and I could wax rhapsodic & poetical & shit about how pregnant with meaning the metaphor of a threshold is, and how it’s so terribly relevant to my Meaningful Life (hey–My Meaningful Life would be a great band name. seriously. I want cash for coming up with that), but I won’t do that, here; there are other places for that, like journals and bar napkins.

I will say that I love liminal spaces–and I can now confidently use that word, assured that I am fully aware of its meaning and etymology–and that the prospect of traveling for another full day is something I rather look forward to, just in terms of having the time to let my brain breathe a bit. Also, I need to work on revising a draft of a script that was due yesterday (which I sent! but it needs work), so after getting this post done, I will turn to that.

Now I want to rewrite the entire thing and make it about liminal spaces. But that can be another script.

Anyway: clearly I missed several days of Underread Bloggery, but sometimes it’s okay, I think, not to document every moment, constantly. I mean, I was documenting in my head, and penning brilliant posts in my mind, for later writing&uploading-to-site, so in some ways I was documenting every moment. Just not publicly. That’s okay; now I don’t feel horribly overexposed.

Here are three random things I have loved about Prague, because three is always a good number, and I should put a limit to this, for this particular post:

1. becoming somewhat familiarized with the Czech language, and learning (in a supremely basic, caveman-level sort of way) how letters operate differently in terms of pronunciation, creating the sounds that are characteristic of the Czech language. for instance, š is pronounced “sh”, so the word Vyšehrad is pronounced “Vish-ey-rod” (roughly; there’s a lot more going on there, of course); and c’s (without any diacritical marks) are pronounced “tz”, so hruškovice is pronounced “HROOSHkoVITZay” (again, horribly roughly). I love that, and I love learning about it, and reading language in a new way, and speaking in a new way. Not that I could speak much, but still; reading language and letters in new ways with new rules is very awesome (Vyšehrad and hruškovice will come up in #2 and #3).

2. the bells of Vyšehrad – holy shit, I have never, ever heard church bells that have moved me like the bells at Vyšehrad, the original royal palace/castle in Prague (and the site where, legend has it, Princess Libuše prophesied that a great city [ahem: praha] would rise one day. she also scorned other royal suitors and married a lowly ploughman, or something, and together around 500 A.D. or so they started the P?emsyl dynasty that would rule Bohemia for 400 years, or so) – there’s a lovely cemetery in Vyšehrad, and to be in that place as the bells ring (the bells ring out as part of Smetana’s Vysehrad symphony: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trgCZrgL4Ws)

I went to Vyšehrad with my friend and her sister the first day I was in Prague; my friend and I returned yesterday, to catch the noon bells. Fucking amazing. Google that shit and find a recording of the bells. Or I will be uploading a crappy audio track once my friend sends it to me.

3. The quiet of Prague at bars, even though the bars are full (and at restaurants). It’s not like silence, but people just speak more intensely and softly here; there’s no loud shouting and speaking as is customary in the states. Again, people are very alive and involved and engaged, but the volume level is turned way down, without at all compromising the life and energy of the place. In fact, the lower levels of speaking in general somehow contribute to a greater intensity. But that’s just me fetishizing & exotifying Prague, again. At bars, I appreciate the Czech spirits like Hrusovice, a spirit from pears. I have some in my luggage; hopefully it survives the plane

which I must now go to board. more on this later, I imagine. But I always say that.

It’s officially Day 8, and while I have some rambles entries to account for the Missing Days, they require more editing than I’m willing to deal with at this particular moment. So, instead: Random Numbered One-Liners With Titles In Bold Lettering!

1. Berlin Public Transportation = In God’s Image, Probably, If You’re Into That Sort Of In-God’s-Image Thing.

It seems the one-liner has been built into the title: but one of many things I love about Berlin’s trains are the cool little buttons that are easily depressed when a rider wants in or out, and which light up very excitingly whenever the train arrives at a station. (I have tried, in vain, to insert a helpful photo here, but for some reason my attempts have failed. Apparently, I suck at digital camera technology from five years ago.)

2. Holy Shit, After Two Days Here, I Still Don’t Speak or Understand German.

It’s true! And for some reason, that small detail interfered with my ability to “get” the two All German Plays I saw tonight at the Schaubühne and two nights ago at the Volksbühne—but what’s “getting it” mean when it comes to Art, right? and I still got to step onto a jangling beach of shining coppery and silvery coins tonight as I walked to my seat. So I wasn’t sweating comprehension. (crap. that’s way more than a one-liner. I guess I suck at brevity, too, especially when rushing.)

3. Hey, Europe’s Full Of White People!

Also true! I’ve spotted a few POCs, although most of the Asian brothers and sisters I’ve seen have been working at flower and fruit stands, not, say, getting a drink at the bar or taking in a night of Theater. However, I haven’t really been out much, nor have I conducted any legitimate research on the subject, so I can’t draw any conclusions. I mean, I can, but they’d be totally groundless, which I know doesn’t stop a lot of people from drawing conclusions, but I’ve got integrity & shit. Really.

4. I’ve Got Integrity & Shit.

I just felt it deserved its own item number; no one gives me enough credit for this one, so I’ll give myself credit. Giving oneself credit is a hella integriful thing to do.

5. Beer Is Cheap, And Yet I Still Insist On Whiskey!

The Beers Of Berlin (and Prague) are totally wasted on me. I did try some, but I just couldn’t stick with it long enough to experience the magic.

6. I Almost Purchased Artwork From A New Yorker Ex-Pat Today!

I really liked the piece; but then I figured that would be sort of ridiculous. And I’m trying not to really spend money on this trip aside from the whole transportation & eating/drinking thing. The lucky few will get a postcard; and I did purchase chocolate for my parents, because they’re really into that antioxidant chocolate thing, and I sort of owe them for, you know, bringing me into the world & shit (now you all know who’s responsible).

7. My Lineage Spotted on Schoenhauser Straße!

And speaking of who’s responsible, I descend, on one side of my family, from a long line of swiss-german bookbinders. I would have gone in and said “Mutter, Vater: Ich habe wieder!” or something like that. But the store was closed, and I don’t speak German (see #2).

(Uh, I had a photo here, too, but same problem. Numbers 1 & 7 totally aren’t being presented as they should be.)

Okay. Tomorrow I head back to Prague. I get to ride the Deutsche Bahn again: joy.

yesterday, day 5, I figured it was time to culturally fortify myself, so I visited two museums in Prague—the Mucha Museum in Prague, where I finally learned what the term “art nouveau” might refer to (and my arty friends who aren’t reading this blog give a collective gasp of horror at yet another display of my relentless ignorance), and where I experienced a sudden, powerful desire to be able to see Sarah Bernhardt play Hamlet (sigh), and the Kafka Museum, which tried quite hard to create (and, I suppose, succeeded, to some degree) a crazy claustrophobic ambiance permeated with very cool primary documents and strange bird calls from some video of an isolated & presumably agonized cartoon man sitting at a desk (in an abstract sort of way). Actually, I rather enjoyed it, and I read all the English text in the exhibition, which was very do-able, since all the text was translated into about three languages, leaving not too much final wall space, in the end—so I felt very accomplished at the end of it without feeling completely fatigued or suicidal from spending too much time in a claustrophobic, moodily lit, narrow-corridor defined space, since it didn’t take all that long to go through. Also, I learned the etymology of Prague: Praj = threshold, apparently. Which had something to do with the very end of the exhibit, but I shan’t give it away. Anyway, the exhibit is a nice companion piece to R. Crumb’s Kafka, which I’d read earlier that morning.

Later that night, my friends and I stumbled through the snow and several crowded pubs with no room for us, until we finally settled on a giant pilsner house place that used to be a place where people were executed by hanging (I can’t think of the word for this). People there had giant hamhocks on their plates, to accompany their beer. I have a picture, but now I’m realizing I have to run to catch a show tonight at Volksbuhne in Berlin.

I got to Berlin late this morning. I love the public transportation here—it’s a bit dreamy, if you’re into good public transportation, as am I.

Here’s a picture, for your viewing pleasure:

ah forget it, not working, and no time to troubleshoot.

off to see Ozean.