Name: M. Jie; Van Xuong
Heros: John Stuart Mill, Malcolm X, the 14th Dalai Lama, Leonardo Davinci, and Woodrow Wilson.
Politics: I believe in the state.
Religion: militant agnostic.
Primary Interests: politics, economics, history, philosophy, chess, jazz, hip hop, soul, funk, trees, street and modern art, publishing, technology, antiques, academia, camping, photography, cinematography, drums, drawing, teas, and dance.
About Me: the money stacker, bank shot shooter, occasional looter, Oaktown Trooper, last second clincher, grand prize winner, lotto taker, props earner, kill you with a super soaker, block stock broker, money collector, truth seeker, sunflower seed chewer, chess teacher, free samples reacher, human insult generator, devil's advocator, deep thinker, title stripper, paradigm flipper, test crusher, shelf duster, eBay hustler, ego buster, the drinking maté cause it's the quicker picker upper.



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2nd January 2010

: HOUSE SWEET IT WOULD BE



I don't know if there is a male biological clock to own a home, but if there is, mine has an extra loud alarm and it's ringing like crazy. I read relator listings, pay attention to floor plans and landscaping, and constantly admire other people's homes in my neighborhood when I take my walks at night. I've also recently discovered the pleasure of working with my hands and doing home improvement projects, but the big ones aren't worth doing unless it's on a home I own.

A few months ago, I had lunch with an undergrad and she wanted to know how to get into human rights/ development work. She talked about how she wanted a career that was going to help the world, and she didn't care about money. Easy to say when you're 18 years old. Try being 30 and wanting to do adult things, such taking care of your parents and owning your own home.

I'm ready to graduate already, get a job as a professor somewhere, buy a house, and do my work in my home office while listening to Bill Evans.

Pictures of two fantastic homes )

31st December 2009

: 2009



2009 was a difficult year. My parents split up, and are going through some serious financial hardships (not least of which includes losing their home). I've lost my relationship with my Mom, for reasons I'm not sure I understand. I'm also still don't have a dissertation topic, and I've become a tad more reclusive in my department this year. I've found that I don't really like hanging out with grad students, particularly those in my department, which is a bit of a problem when graduate school lays such a totalizing claim on your life.

Still, there are things that have made 2009 worthwhile. First, and most obviously, is Anna. I've had a few other relationships in the past, and I look back fondly on them. They were all with really great people, and I grew a lot through those relationships. However, Anna is the first girl I've been very serious about, and I feel like I've finally learned how to be a good boyfriend. Second is how much closer I've gotten to my Dad. He moved to Canada, but I'm hoping we'll be able to live in the same city sometime in the next five years. Third is my remarkable set of friends, which I've been so fortunate to have for so many years (some, such as Eben, Pete, and Matt, I've been friends with for almost 20 years now). Fourth is turning 30 and feeling great about it; I feel like I've finally grown into myself. Fifth is having the opportunity to land one of my dream jobs - consulting for the United Nations on economic development issues. Though that's not without its frustrations, I'm very thankful for the opportunity. Finally, there have been the small things. I passed two qualifying exams, one almost with Distinction; I've learned how to cook decently; I wrote a paper that has been accepted for publication; I've started to play blues harmonica; and I've discovered that I really like teaching political economy, and can see a fulfilling career in it.

For next year, I hope to put in more time into learning statistics, finally figure out how to program in R, start on my dissertation, and read more books unrelated to political economy.

As an aside, regarding the Woody Allen clip above, if you haven't heard "Potato Head Blues," you need to stop playing around and click this.

OK, I'm off to a few parties with a beautiful Irish woman, who is in a black slip dress and white pumps. Happy New Years to you all, and I sincerely hope the next decade brings you a lot of happiness.

24th December 2009

: BEIJING CAPITAL (PEK) ✈ SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL (SFO)



Anna is flying into San Francisco, and will be here in about 24 hours. I'll be picking her up at the airport. We're spending the next month together, half the time in San Francisco/ Oakland, and the other half in New York. I imagine we'll be going to museums, seeing jazz shows, dancing, walking aimlessly throughout the two cities, taking nature hikes, visiting flea markets and antique shops, having picnics in the parks, watching movies at home, and cooking many dinners together. I'm pretty excited about it.

23rd December 2009

: POPS AT NEWPORT, 1958

20th December 2009

: LIVEJOURNAL COUPONS



LiveJournal has given each paid account user (which includes me) an offer to give LiveJournal Basic/Plus users a $10 coupon for an annual paid subscription. Depending on how you set up your account, that means you can get a paid account for between $10-15. If anyone wants one, just drop me a comment and I'll send one to you.

19th December 2009

: WHY I DISLIKE HIPSTERS

For the most part, conversations about hipsters are almost as irksome as hipsters themselves. But I think this is largely because these conversations usually have a very adolescent quality to them. People make threadbare comments about the conformity of hipsters, who seem superficially anti-establishment, and debate whether the subculture is still cool. I think there is a more interesting conversation to be had, however, and it regards the factors undergirding this pop culture phenomenon, and some of the implications it has for national and generational values.

I want to stress that this post has nothing to do with the aesthetics of hipster culture; I'm not interested writing about its musicality, fashion sensibility, cinematic aesthetic, or literary quality. That topic has been beaten to death, and is really unsatisfying since aesthetics are so deeply personal and subjective. There are some indie rock artists I like - e.g. Cat Power and Yeah Yeah Yeahs - and some that don't. However, that's neither here nor there.

What I am interested in are some of the themes that constitute it. We largely know this subculture through its soundtrack, which is mostly indie rock, though a folk revival seems be bubbling up. There is also a cinematic genre that is associated. Modern hipsters love classics by Jean-Luc Godard, and celebrate more contemporary directors such as Wes Anderson. Lastly, its literary heroes include Nick Hornby, David Sedaris, and Dave Eggers. From that, we can paint a rough picture about the themes often represented: self-pity, disillusionment with adulthood, uncertainty, unrequited love (and when requited, it's unfulfilling), disdain, nostalgia, angst, and existentialism. There is also a lot of conspicuous display, and a tropism towards the spectacle of consumer cool. The last is particularly puzzling since so many of its themes revolve around its desperate need for "authenticity," and a criticism of the modern age.

These themes are contrasted against the cultural movements of the mid-century. Popular culture from that period was about people with self-possession, self-sufficiency, self-direction, discretion, charm, and wit; such a people were lionized as being "cool." What made one cool wasn't about what you achieved, or haven't achieved. Instead, it was about how you went about things. Furthermore, the movies and music of the age seemed to suggest some people were just born with this quality. It didn't demand that we all be such people; in fact, it was assumed not all of us could be. It did make obvious, however, how each of us should respond to those who were.

So who were these people? In movies, it was Cary Grant, John Wayne, and Paul Newman. In music, it was Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, and Frank Sinatra. In literature it was P.G. Wodehouse, Jack Kerouac, and the fictional character, Phillip Marlowe.

And there I think we can at least see the cultural shift. Over Steve McQueen's understated cool, paint in Dov Charney's flashy sexuality. Over John Steinbeck and George Orwell's concern about the world, paint the Richie and Margot Tenebaum's narrow self-obsession. Over Frank Sinatra's savoir-faire, paint in David Sedaris' stories about awkward moments.

I've been curious what has caused this shift, and I’m still not sure. At the heart of hipster culture, I believe, is a deep sense of alienation and angst. In that perspective, some of it at least makes historical sense. Alienation of modern man has been a long time coming. Industrial capitalism alienated man from his labor; state bureaucracy alienated man from his government; Protestantism alienated man from his God; and technology alienated man from his community.

For industrial capitalism, the argument is familiar. In many ways, the pre-industrial capitalist world was no less insecure than today's world. However, work and community life were at least ordered on a human scale. This meant three things. First, people lived in tightly knit communities, and the productive unit was often still the family. Second, the tools for work, pace of work, production of goods, and distribution of gains, were all controlled by human capacity and need. Finally, work itself was still closely integrated with the total life of individuals and communities, not separated from what we now call "leisure activities." The disintegration of this human ordering happened with the tremendous growth of mechanical power and information technology. Through mechanical power, the craft production system gave way to the English system of machine tool manufacturing, which then led to a division of labor. Through information technology, managers could break up the production process and monitor labor productivity, thus making labor a more regulated commodity. These two shifts in production organization has made man alienated from his labor.

What industrial capitalism did to man and his labor, state bureaucracy did to man and his government. Max Weber once wrote that rational state bureaucracies were particularly suited for industrial capitalism because "the more bureaucracy 'depersonalizes' itself, the more completely it succeeds in achieving the exclusion of love, hatred, and every purely personal, and especially irrational and incalculable, feeling from the execution of personal tasks. In the place of the old-type ruler who is moved by sympathy, favor, grace and gratitude, the modern culture requires for its sustaining external apparatus and emotionally detached, and hence rigorously 'professional' expert."

A similar story can be seen for Protestantism and man's relation to his gods. For most of human history, man has been embedded in mythologically instructed communities. This religious ordering, however, fell apart as newfound knowledge and power was discovered at least since The Age of Enlightenment. In the West, one of the most significant contributors to the destruction of mythologically instructed communities has been Protestantism. In its attack against the dogma, power, and ritual of the universal church, Protestantism helped free man for worldly activities. This resulted in great social and economic revolutions. However, since Protestantism made man face God alone, without the community of the medieval church, and stressed the fundamental evil and powerlessness of man, a great price was paid for those gains. Man has been made more alone and isolated, and has intensified feelings of insignificance and powerlessness. As Will Herberg noted, Protestantism has made it possible for us to have religiousness without religion, and that religiousness is more about sociability and belonging, rather than a way of reorientating life according to God. Protestantism, therefore, is religiousness without serious commitment, internalized conviction, or genuine existential decision. Through Protestantism, and subsequently secularism, man thus became alienated from his God.

Lastly, personal technology has played a more recent role in alienating people. As social animals, we find emotional support, identity, and a sense of purpose and direction through our communities. We gain happiness and fulfillment by helping people, participating in groups, gossiping, and forming relationships. Unfortunately, people demand less of these things now, partly because of the progression of personal technology. We don't need someone to come by to show us how to do something when the instructions are posted online, or we already have a machine at home that can do it. Additionally, things that used to be social, such as shopping, are now done online. And even more significantly, television and the internet give us the opportunity to be entertained at any moment, more accessibly and more easily. We no longer need to rely on people to fill our leisure time. Robert Putnam once lamented that we are no longer part of bowling clubs, but now bowl alone. I contend that we don't even bowl alone anymore, we just don’t go bowling at all. Even the marginal socializing one gets from being in a public space is gone, and consequently people are more alienated from their communities.

Now we have a view of man alienated from his government, bereft of his religion, isolated in his community, and chained to his monotonous work. In this condition, we have built "mass culture" as we understand it, and it is in mass culture we form and transmit our core values. When modernity weakens traditional human orders, it leaves the individual at the mercy of impersonal forms of communication such as newspapers, radio, and television -- what Veblen called the "laughing gas" to an unsuspecting mass audience. Most of this communication tends to be a one-way street, with consumers more on the taking end rather than the giving end. As a result, those who control the channels of communication largely determine the shape and direction of opinions, values, and cultural movements. Perhaps some of that is changing now with the internet, but it's not at all clear to me that agglomerations, buy ups, and co-optations of small, successful subcultures, where two-way communication might be more prevalent, isn't inevitable.

So although there is a basis for alienation, I’m bothered that hipster culture is about continuing and celebrating the alienated adolescent experience. Self-pitying, disaffection, alienation, and angst aren’t seen as terrible things, they’re in a way celebrated and made “cool.” This subculture, then, broadcasts these values through communication channels. From there, we first ape the images, and then we internalize its values. Our generation’s values, apparent in the music, movies and literature we consume, look so poor when compared to any other age. Whatever holdover virtues there are from the previous era, they've been exaggerated so far that they've only become a semblance of the original thing. Reticence, as a quality of character, has become just awkward shyness. Clint Eastwood's "thousand-yard stare" characters are now just American Apparel models with vacuous looks. Clark Gable's wryness and wit has become a 35 year-old record store employee's mugging knowingness. Whatever isn't a distortion of an old virtue just comes off as whiney, self-pitying adolescence.

Our present age of cynicism, halfhearted irony, and angst succeeds a quite different period of hope, certainty, and optimism. Sixty years ago, man still believed in himself and the work of his hands, had faith in the powers of reason and science, trusted his gods and conceived of his own capacity for growth and progress as endless and his widening horizons limitless. Today we have hipsters who pity themselves, buy into the post-modern critique of traditions and reason, mock gods, and consider history progressive only when their children listen to the “proper” bands and don't like Barney, the purple dinosaur (though vintage episodes of Sesame Street are fine). In a time with so much materialistic wealth, information, and technological capability, we have a nothingness that yawns before self-pitying, self-obsessed men. When I tell people hipsters really bother me, I mean it in the sense that we've prolonged the stage of adolescence and celebrate all the wrong values. It's not that I'm concerned with the aesthetic. Styles may change, but virtues should abide.

15th December 2009

: NOTE TAKING: JAZZLIFE



I recently bought this Taschen book, JazzLife, and it came with a really incredible CD. It's a bit bereft of modal jazz traditions, surprisingly, but this album still sums up almost everything about where I'm musically at right now.

Now if Bill Evans, Miles Davis, and Ahmad Jamal were on here, it would summarize my music listening habits completely.

As always, the password is Chasing.Red. (two words, two capitalizations, two periods).

Song: Jack O'Diamonds by Brother Percy Randolph
Song: Oh Lord Send Me Peace by Choir of St. John's Baptist Temple
Song: Tenor Saxophone Improvisation on "Soft Lights"
by John Coltrane, Paul Chambers, and Art Taylor

Album: JazzLife by Various Artists

2nd December 2009

: THE COMPANY WE KEEP

In high school, I painted graffiti in a crew. Those years gave me a lot of good memories, and some good friends, but sometimes I wish I had concentrated more on academics. Recently, however, I found some online videos of old friends from that crew, and realized how lucky I am to have friendships with people ranging from graffiti artists to biophysicists. Maybe I should have spent those years reading more books, or maybe my life is richer for being surrounded by such talented people in such different areas. Looking at these videos makes me think it's the latter.

What old high school friends are doing these days )

21st November 2009

: PARTY PEOPLE DON'T PARTY ANYMORE

What happened to dancing? It seems like it's impossible to dance anymore. At parties and clubs, people mostly stand around uncomfortably, holding PBRs and American Spirits so they have excuses to be present. If there is dancing, there are either too many people on the floor for you to move (which I suppose relieves some anxiety for those who want cover while they dance), or some girl is grinding her ass on your leg. Everything is so self-conscious and calculating.

Nisha and I drove down the California coast over the summer, taking the Pacific Coast Highway all the way down. We wound up in some Southern California bar with a small dance floor, which nobody dared approach except for the occasional carefree girl and her friend. Nish and I danced for a bit, having much of the floor to ourselves. It was a rare, and very missed, moment where I finally found someone who enjoyed dancing enough to do more than just shake their shoulders, but not awkwardly resort to grinding their ass and hips.

I used to really love dancing, but I stopped going out because the dancing scene ended up getting taken over by floor crowding and dry humping. There just aren't any venues to dance in anymore.

Except weddings.


Dance videos )

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