On Monterey Park, Parenting, and the New Year
Monterey Park, California, USA, is the heart of the Chinese/Taiwanese/Cantonese American diaspora in Southern California. I know it because my parents know it. Because they have friends there, or friends of friends there, because first generation immigrants either settled or found community there. As The Washington Post put it: “Here between the snow-capped San Gabriel…
My 18 Books Of 2022
I abandoned the book-a-week pace of earlier years once the pandemic came for us. 2022 was a year I spent writing and revising, revising, revising my own book, which is now ready for preorder. I hope you will reserve a copy, and if you do, please write me a note or comment that you have…
2022 In Review: The Write Life
This was the year the pandemic felt “over” enough that everyone I know began jet-setting again (curiously it seemed like the aforementioned “everyone” summered in Italy?). For me, as accustomed as I am to constant movement, I spent much of 2022 alone, writing from my bed. The deadline to turn in the book nearly flattened…
People I Have Met In LA, An Incomplete List
People I’ve met in LA just going about my regular life, and not because I was interviewing them: The guy who did the movements for Lyle Lyle CrocodileThe guy who did the movements for Jar Jar Binks (Different guy)Someone who runs Dua Lipa’s foundationSomeone who runs Mandy Moore’s production companySomeone who slept with Flo from…
Yani
There is a real tedium and grinding labor to parenting small children. It involves hassles like bottle washing, endless loads of laundry, or contorting your body to pick up the crayon that fell underneath the plane seat in front of you, again and again and again. For the past seven years, most of that labor…
The House with the Blue Door
On June 1, I got a new house on a whim. It has a giant deck out back, a gorgeous master bedroom retreat upstairs with 30-foot high ceilings of natural wood. The whole house is flooded with LA sunshine. The back house used to be an artist studio, and is large enough to be renovated…
The Big TED
Back from Vancouver, where TED hosted its first flagship conference since 2019, and what an event it was. We were greeted by anti-vaxxers who have it out for Bill Gates, one of this year’s speakers. Nearly 2,000 participants took part from all over the world, dozens of speakers and performances enchanted, empowered and enlightened us,…
What Do We Know
How many people have I interviewed in my lifetime? Thousands? More like tens of thousands, surely. One of the conversations that most sticks with me is with artist and author of How To Do Nothing, Jenny Odell. We called her up to talk about travel, but really, being the deep thinker that she is, the…
40: This Is How We Do It
I did it! I made it to 40! I feel so feted. As many of you probably know, I love a good theme party. In Austin I used to host a Weenie Roast (get your mind out of the gutter, we just grilled hot dogs and sausages), and in DC my most memorable Christmas party…
E-L-I-S-E
I’ve arrived! A puzzler let me know that I was a clue in today’s USA Today crossword. (Check out 13 down). This might be cooler than getting that vegetarian sandwich named after me in 2020. The sentimental part is USA Today is the first newspaper that’s ever published my writing. I appeared in it in…
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