IRL

It's 2020.04.01 again on the lunar calendar today.

Fittingly for the pandemic in which our sense of time has warped, there are consecutive Aprils on the Lunar calendar for 2020 so here I greet you for the second April. I had planned to be in Oaxaca at this moment but I'm having a blast just the same, weeding and running around my new island Eudaimonia.

I thought video games to be frivolous, a waste of time that could be spent on beneficial real-life activities but then I thought to myself, "What is real life?" What is real life when family and friends are graduating from

Blockeley University

(the #1 Minecraft University in the world!) and 

museum-hopping

on Animal Crossing?

I finally came to this virtual-reality version of "Am I

Zhuangzi or the butterfly

?" when I realized that I could only attend my sister's graduation party on her island, in person, if I got on Animal Crossing.

So I congratulated Eunice for making it through two years of a rigorous city planning program while working full-time(!) by letting her gift me a Nintendo Switch 😛 What a time to be in city planning (which intersects with public health) ...

I've mostly kept to doing the minimum but below's a roundup of what I've managed. As a friend used to say, if you did one thing on a given day, you did do something. I hope to become productive because synthesizing ideas helps to lighten the load in my brain. Here's a

post

I wrote comparing the South Korean and American responses to COVID-19 to get some thoughts down.

I also hosted a

Poytiano class

 through

Homeschool Coop 2020

 and I recommend looking at their calendar if you have kids. I plan to return for another class as we continue to stay home — if you want to be notified, just let me know.

 Mandu Time 🥟 

Featuring handmade mandu from my mom, music & voices by me, and video by Eric Hinojosa's team.It's Mandu Time! I was thrilled to successfully emit and record girthy subtones(?) from my voice.If you're on Instagram, click here to watch the sequence of Mandu Time. (If you're not, watch it here.) I'll add on newly composed clips there as I continue to devour dumplings.

Society Red

North Korea has been in the news a lot lately once again. Here's my vocalese to Dexter Gordon's solo on his song "Society Red" that lays out the history of North Korea up to 2008 when I recorded it. Also, here's recent nuanced reporting from Throughline NPR for anyone curious.

Little Tokyo Little Podcast

I return to you with the exact date for when the music segment I recorded will be up. Listen here once it's posted this Monday, and if you have English-, Korean-, Chinese- or Japanese-speaking elders who aren't tech-savvy, forward them the appropriate dial-in number listed on the page. 

Here's a photo from the graduation! The hour-long party flew by as we listened to the speech, gave gifts and the diploma, and took lots of photos while chatting on Zoom (for people who aren't on Animal Crossing). It was in many ways like a traditional commencement with awkward bumping into people, worrying about rain, and getting an untimely swollen eye (I got stung by wasps).

What is real life? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Currently listening to the Mozart Requiem 🎧Pre-pandemic I was thinking I'd like to write my own Kyrie Eleison choral piece and now it really seems like the time to do it. Lord, have mercy.