a recipe for a Jungian dining

because when i'm in restaurants i observe and observe and observe and psychoanalyze ....

to start, you need a forty plus year old vietnamese man, you know, the ones with money and more often than not, married and also more often than not, has no vestige of physical attractiveness whatsoever (but oh well, that's me). next is a beautiful young vietnamese woman, often not older than thirty, not necessarily not educated, not necessarily not employed and evidently not the wife. the third is the woman's friend. often there for ___________________________ (fill in the blank, if it's me, it's for approval, a symbol of how blase and accepted this is in vietnamese society, but then again that's me).

now for the power dynamics, the woman taking on the role of the mother brings beauty and harmony. she divides the food, serves the friend and the man and herself, of course the man comes first. the friend taking on the role of the child brings joy and happiness to the otherwise boring conversation that's to ensue , basically most of the conversation is between her and the woman. the man taking on the role of the father, he is condescendingly bored of the women's chatter so he takes no part, but he is the one to whom the waiter or waitress caters to, for after all he plays a most important role, he pays, for everything.

this emphasizes just how different vietnamese women's expectations are from mine.

chao cac ban, like amadbrownwoman, the dancing inmates are back!

and the inmates are now dancing (supposedly) to air a political statement.

online geekness

shortened version of friendster messages between two huh, friends (i just love me in my real articulate moments

vietnam: oi,oi,oi, have you read zadie smith? just read autograph man (available at all leading pirated bookstores nationwide!), go read, am now looking for white teeth
philippines: (response in less than a week, remarkable since this person would respond usually after a month, or two or never, honestly that's what friends are for) why, what's great about zadie smith?
vietnam: funny, flaneur, fucked-up, well, autograph man, at least
philipines: hmm, zadie smith, flaneur mode you say? i'll look it up. the best i've read lately is alain de botton's the art of travel, which is a sort of intellectual/academic but still bourgeois mind trip on, what else, d'art of travel

admittedly i am vietnam, so yes geek. and while on the subject of friends:

WANTED: CRIMINALS (BABIES NOT INCLUDED)
REWARD: REALLY CHEAP MOT DOLLAR ONLY

i saw the best minds of my generation work in call centers( i know you're dead but take that ginsberg! and zadie smith)

and of course, another one of my old time friends

indie movies from phil, why oh why are indies from other asian countries not available here? what the?


ps as far as i know zadie smith not dead yet, just to clarify
pps women do loose their ability to take pictures of themselves when they have children, children as some form of physical extension, after all the theorizing and foa shiz char! (there i go again)
ppps foa=full of art, pare!
ppps raia pps is for you dear
pppps on the ginsberg allusion you know yous
ppppps i miss you and love you and miss you my friends (ang mushy nito)
pppppps ma tante s'appelait bella, ma chere lara et elle etait une chienne, just saying

If there's a fish sauce contest...

“The nuoc mam from Phu Quoc Island was the best of all, clear and with an astonishingly subtle taste. . .But the sauce in this restaurant is from the Philippines, very bad, not from Thailand, which at least is a pale second-best.” - from Love by Robert Olen Butler

(If you're a Filipino, look away quick, because I agree. I'm partial to Phu Quoc nuoc mam.)

When I went to Phan Tiet, the Vietnamese driver said that the nuoc mam from Phan Tiet is also good. I wouldn't know though since I didn't want to open the car to buy one while we were passing the nuoc mam area. It would have been tantamount to going inside a gas chamber. Or self-mutilation.

Which sport do you play?

In my sweeping survey (not that I ever did a survey, of course), the greatest signifier of Asian-ness is *drum rolls* BADMINTON.

Here is the theoretical result of the said theoretical survey:
99% of Vietnamese plays badminton, remaining 1% handicapped, ie victims of agent orange, tennis is the sign of economic status, so when a Vietnamese says s/he plays tennis, it means a declaration of membership to the upper echelon of society or an intent to be a member of that esteemed group (red alert, *the sound is dong! dong! dong!), the immediate response of the women is badminton, immediate response of men is football (testosterone!) and then badminton