Cincinnati...hit with a hurricane?
Category: Life

As we got the tail wind of IKE, I sympathized with all of the people that have to endure it head on.

We up here have been without power now with 300,000 other people for the past few days.  I've been traveling back and forth to the library, so if I'm not around your blogs for now, don't be worried...

Mother Nature just wanted to make us here, up North, a bit more sensitive as to what is going on in the South.

Dee

I hope my friends living around the Gulf are o.k....I've been thinking about you.

8:21 PM - 32 Comments - 48 Kudos - Add Comment

My Life in America: an essay (of sorts) by Thomas Tye
Current mood: adventurous
Category: Life

My Life in America: an essay of sorts by Thomas Tye

Thomas Tye…now who might that be? That is information that will be revealed in the future, when I am back to Korea and settled. Right now I can't seem to get anything out.

I often wonder when life will be better. The times I wonder this I end up catching myself and kick myself—hard—because it reminds me of an infamous question I love to ask, a question that leaves Korean University students befuddled.

I always ask, in any class, what is the one thing that we, as humans, will always want? Immediately people's hands shoot up, but I stop them with the obvious answer, and explain to them that it was inherent in our nature even before the concept of money was created. They don't understand my little hint, not because their English isn't excellent, but because their way of thinking is intrinsically different than mine. Next, someone will say "more space", which means more space in their houses, which is a measure of how much money someone has.

The answers go on and on as I sit back and listen to them, letting them practice their English. I egg them on a bit more telling them that the answer is even simpler than that.

Question: What will humans always want?
Answer: more

My life in America was similar to that, and every time I come back here I remember how it was. I wanted more money, a better car, more women more often…I wanted to be…I wanted, I wanted . Before I always…I always wanted more.

Now, after living in Asia for five years of my life, the only thing I want in my life is to be happy—more. Strange, but watching the clouds going by on the airplane I started feeling my American desires, desires that crept back into my head that waved to my brain for a moment before they hibernated again when they felt the force of my foot in my ass.


I got my visa paperwork finished; it took about 3 days.

To sum it up—my life in America: I live in Cincinnati, Ohio. Confederate flags are still proudly flown a few miles from me to the South. To the North they still burn an occasional cross. To the East the people that I once graduated with live wanting the kind of MORE that I used to and have it. Where I live now in the West…the West Side, where things don't gleam as much people want that same kind of MORE and most don't have it.
 
My life in America is good, not because I see the negative…but because the negative doesn't see me anymore. It gave up.

Currently listening : Appetite for Destruction By Guns N’ Roses Release date: 1990-10-25

8:21 PM - 73 Comments - 64 Kudos - Add Comment

Border Jumping and Visa Dodging...
Current mood: adventurous
Category: Life

After a week of getting paper work in order,  catching up with friends and trying to make sense of why I have to pick up my back pack again, I am border jumping and visa dodging again here in Korea--heading back to Japan for my friend's b-day (Spade for those of you who know) and up to Osaka to fly back to the States to do this all again.

Yeah, I know I'm a punk.  So be it.  I've got a surprise for most you when I am able to get back here to Korea...until then I'll be catching up with you on here when I'm in America.

For those of you that it pisses off: I'm commentless again.  I never want to half ass a good comment, so I choose not to...again.  Don't worry though; this next year I have lots to share, lots to tell, and lots to reveal. 

Catch up with you in a week.

Dee

Currently listening : Wave of Mutilation: The Best of Pixies By Pixies Release date: 2004-04-27

7:21 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos

Jack’s Place--Now the work comes from far away
Current mood: cantankerous
Category: Life

Those of you that done our banner, we thank you. Since the war has started we have had to change our phone number. Here is a new banner with our new phone number.

7:21 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos

The Cycle of the Man Inside of Me
Current mood: tired
Category: Life

I have been elusive lately.  You would think that I was playing a game, but I'm not.  I've simply been trying to get out of my backpack.  Those of you that think that the grass is greener on the other side--well, you've probably never slept on the street when you haven't wanted to.  You have probably never spent the day running with a pack strapped to you hoping you will catch your flight or your boat and you've missed it (for months on end). You've probably never walked for days on end with that pack super glued to your back with sweat and grime, being hassled by poor children, poor parents, poor war vets who beg for money from you and follow you down the street for kilometers.  You've probably never had to walk ignoring them because you know that there is nothing you can do for them but keep walking to the next town where you can get that bus that will take you back to "civilization" where you can come up with the next plan to do some good.

The cycle of man inside of me says "you can do some good now, can't you?" but again inside I feel like I am cheating them if I give in and sit for a tea to listen to them beg for money or for help in war zones far away to the normal person...and there is nothing I can do because I am broken, dismayed and disproportionate to who I really am.

Yeah, I sound like a whiner right now, and I am.  I just willingly unpacked my toilet bag last week after over a year thinking I'd be in Korea from now for a straight shot after picking up that black leather bag from the sludge of a Sri Lankan bus terminal, the muck of a Spanish bus toilet, or the revolving door of friend's houses around the world.  But their visa process in Korea has kicked me out and I am having to go back to America to sort this shit out.

The grass is only greener until the sun comes out to scorch it.  But don't pity me, because I don't pity you.  I only wish for a stable life when I can relax with my clothes off walking around a private apartment.

Fuck you 421.  This week I'm pissed at you. Yet I can see that it is the cycle of man inside of me. 

The places I go don't always allow for easy internet connections.  I just wanted to let you know myspace that I think of you everyday.

Currently listening : Lifehouse By Lifehouse Release date: 2005-03-22

4:21 PM - 102 Comments - 72 Kudos - Add Comment

Back from Sri Lanka...
Current mood: excited
Category: Life

I have a ton of stuff to catch up on, stories to tell that I still can't believe, a book that will finally be published, secrets to reveal, and karma to build.

Right now I'm in Korea again on a contract, which will lead me in to the story about the progress of the movie I am working on.

Damn, just too much to say in a quick blog, but coming back to an inbox full of messages, a few pages of comments and to all of my friends and readers on here, I must say that I feel extremely happy to be back to myspace.

I'll be catching up with you all in the next couple of days, just wanted to jump on and tell you that I've missed you.

Dee

4:21 PM - 32 Comments - 58 Kudos - Add Comment

The Balance in an Unbalanced World
Current mood: determined
Category: Life

There's a feeling I have that I can't shake away.

Next week I leave for Asia again, more in debt than I've ever been in my entire life. Logic and common sense burned out in my head as they tried to fight with passion and stubbornness with this feeling…itch that has never been able to be scratched.

Right now the directors in Spain can't sell a movie idea about all of the world's religions coming together for peace to emphatic Christian production companies. Since we have started filming all three of us that have been bitten by this idea have gone to the black side of red in our bank accounts to keep our idea alive, and none of us have given up, no matter how bad we all have wanted to. We just can't.

I should've been working by now. I should've signed a contract back in Korea, where I can start working off the enormous amount of debt I've accrued, but I'm not going to, not yet.

The feeling I can't shake is that the guys at Jack's Place that I made a promise to are waiting for me to fulfill it. I promised them that I was going to put our place on the map, I was going to scream to the world that where we live peace can exist.

So I am. I took out another credit card to afford our trip to Jack's Place where we are going to film the Peace Walk in July. Money or no money.

I'm sure when I look back on my life I'm going to see that I did something with all of my heart, even though I was taking the risk of having to work for 10 years to pay off a dream.

It's all in your hands now God. After this, if there is no big money in sight to keep us working, I'm going to get a job with my chin up and my tail between my legs, knowing I fought for balance in an unbalanced world.

If you believe in peace: when you are finished reading this blog, I ask you to close your eyes for three idealists that believe they can change people's minds about how the world is through the power of cinema.  Close your eyes and wish for us to get what we need to keep going.

8:21 AM - 87 Comments - 86 Kudos - Add Comment

The Card Board Box Ladies of South Korea
Current mood: inspired
Category: Life

 Some people in South Korea eat dog; it's a delicacy. 

When I first got there I thought how terrible it was that people there eat dog.  How could someone do such a thing?  I thought.  But then I realized that I just came from Sri Lanka where people there wouldn't touch pork if it was the only food left on this earth.

There is a reason for everything, and after I learned that in South Korea during the Korean War some people were actually boiling tree roots for food my heart grew a little.

Because the government there never set up a social security program for their citizens, the older generation, the ones that survived the war and Japanese occupation would walk around the city streets with carts collecting card board boxes that they would sell to supplement their savings.  People will set out their bottles, cans, and card board boxes and in the morning, the card board box ladies will walk the streets at night with their carts to pick them up.

One night I sat and followed a lady with a crooked back that waddled as she pulled her enormous cart of cardboard.  She was singing at the top of her lungs a song in Korean that I couldn't understand, but one that I could feel as it echoed in the dirty corners of uneven buildings.  Her song was somber, but she sang out with a breath of survival over her lips that captured me.  I followed her for almost a half an hour a hundred meters behind her on the opposite side of the road and hid in the shadows when she would turn to hoist her boxes into her cart.  I couldn't stop listening to her.

A week or so later I was turning the corner along another street at night and a different woman grabbed me with her wrinkled hand and led mine to her cart.  I pushed her giant cart of cardboard up the hill as she smiled the whole way up huffing next to me.

I'll always remember the cardboard box ladies of South Korea as long as I live.  Every time I saw them it was one of those surreal moments that happen in life when you realize that no matter what happens you will be alright.

Currently listening : The Real Thing By Faith No More Release date: 1989-06-15

8:21 PM - 72 Comments - 52 Kudos - Add Comment

Help AnthroGeek
Current mood: catalyzed
Category: Friends

I always try to post my blogs on Wednesdays, unless I find a blogger out there that needs a bit of help.

This week AnthroGeek, one of the best bloggers in my myspace world is throwing a bit of a party.

Anyone who likes beer will definitely enjoy this, so go over and check out what I mean and see what you can do to help.

Tell her Dee sent you

Click here to support AnthroGeek

See you Wednesday.

4:21 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos

The Naked Mile With Muddy Asses
Current mood: nostalgic
Category: Life

Batman Begins: everytime I watch that movie, which is often I always remember Harlaxton Manor.

I was 22 and had just started University. There was a writing course that was offered—British Women poets and Gothic Horror and Romance—except I had to go all the way to England to do it for a summer semester. I lived in a mansion house as I studied that had secret passageways, magnificent ballrooms, and hidden gardens scattered on the hill that overlooked the town.

I found a little nook everyday to sit down to write and read, and I had never seen such misty skies with green rolling hills that went on forever. It was only my second time to England, although the first time I had never made it out of the big cities. The real England is kind of hard to experience if you have never been out of the big cities.

Not every night, but most, we'd go into town for a few pints that turned into many only to stumble home. I'd always have the cabbie drop us at the head of the driveway to walk back so I had time to feel. So I could feel the air and feel what was going on inside of me. This particular night it was my birthday so all 16 students and I went into town crammed into a few different black cabs.

So we went for the naked mile, the group in our cab at least, a long running tradition at Harlaxton. You start at the end of the mile long driveway and walk back in the buff. I was…levitated that night. It wasn't just the pints of Guiness, but the scent in the air, the feeling I had after reading Bronte all afternoon, and laughing harder than I had all year at dinner.

One of the girls that was walking with us I don't think had ever taken her clothes off in front of anyone, including herself, and then there's me who takes any and all advantages to walk in the open air nude, so I was strolling with the biggest buzz I'd had in a long time.

I was wondering what happened to the other cab the very exact moment a pair of lights shined from the front of the house heading our way. It seemed that the others had taken the service entrance instead of being dropped at the road, so when they started coming towards us the first time exhibitionist screamed at the top of her lungs and started dragging us into the field. We all huddled into the string bean field screaming with laughter as the cab shot past us on the drive, yet we were so drunk we all fell over into the mud. And then walked back with muddy asses to the house laughing at the girl that now was so concerned she had mud all over herself she forgot to cover up.

Today, let's spice up myspace a little--if you like I want to hear about your best naked story.

Currently listening : Hideaway By The Weepies Release date: 2008-04-22

4:21 PM - 107 Comments - 58 Kudos - Add Comment