In Defense of Visual Poetry

I flew back to LA for my thesis defense.  For people who actually have a life outside of academia--God bless you, everyone--this is pretty much the last stage of your doctorate before you submit your already-finished dissertation to the graduate school for formatting.  Once that's done, you're officially, absolutely, completely done with your PhD.  But LB + I wouldn't have come to LA just for business.  We also wanted to visit some of our favorite haunts in LA too + wax nostalgic about our time in this crazy, majestic, polluted, fantastical little city of self-creators.

Here are a few snapshots of our too-short time back in the place we once called home during my grad school days at USC:

A Stroll through WeHo

Brunch at M Café

Driving from K-Town to WeHo

Driving through South Central

Walking through SC Campus

Right Before My Thesis Defense, LB Giving Me a Dirty Look

My Former Office where I Once Terrorized My Students during Essay Conferences

Doheny Library

Walking past the Tutor Center

LACMA

Post-Thesis Defense, Feeling Kinda Enlightened.  Okay, Bad Joke.

Driving through Mid-Wilshire

House in Venice

Venice Canals

Venice Shop

Venice House 2

Walking through Abbot Kinney

Bye-Bye for Now, LA.  We'll Be Back

The Year in Review 2012

It's been a long, insane, + tumultuous ride, my friends.  While there are so many things that have happened in this past year--some of them crazy as fuck, like almost getting run over by a hit and run that ended up colliding with three parked cars, one of which caught on fire like in the movies--ultimately, this year was defined above all things, by intensity + power + beauty + circularity + clarity.  Among the many things, here are a few highlights:

1.  Visiting Ōsaka for the first time in my life, where most of my Japanese family lives

2.  Connected to #1, meeting my Japanese family for the first time in my life after going to the Edo Castle, including my cousins Eikichi + Chie, Aunt Shizuko + Uncle Toshio, Eikichi's wife Megumi.

3.  Feeding the deer in Nara, singing authentic karaoke in Dōtonbori with Eikichi + Megumi, eating Soba + going to temples for the New Years

4.  Passing my Field Exam, my Written Exam + My Oral Exam at USC, becoming a PhD candidate in the process

5.  Celebrating (lamenting) our last six months in LA

6.  Taking two road trips to Santa Barbara.  One, just to see it.  A second time to kick it with my Thesis Adviser, TC Boyle at his Frank Loyd Wright house

7.  Spending my 28th 38th birthday at LACMA with LB

8.  Going to the Getty Institute

9.  Saying goodbye to USC, at least for 2012

10.  Getting short stories accepted for publication in Quarter After Eight, the Last Night on Earth Anthology  + The Antioch Review

11.  Saying Goodbye to LA, which, to be honest, really broke my heart in a way that I never though it would

12.  Driving across country from LA to Chicago with the pooches + a million boxes of books

13.  Releasing my electronic music LP, "Space Age" on iTunes

14.  Being the 1st Runner Up in Fiction in the P&W's California Exchange Award

15.  Finally publishing a short story in Fiction International after sending them submissions for years

16.  Reuniting with my beautiful city, Chicago

My Flash Entry of Chicago Leading up to the New Year

These past six months have been especially insane.  Ever since LB, the pooches + I left LA, drove across the country back to Chicago (our city), things have been beautiful, dramatic + intense.  Add to that my dissertation (I'm writing the last chapter as we speak), assembling our new apartment in Rogers Park one piece of furniture at a time, applying to creative writing fellowships, almost getting killed in a hit + run on our block, applying to a bunch of teaching jobs in Chicago, 10 days LB spent in the hospital--and suddenly you have 6 accelerated months that raced by like glider.  So, to help you catch up with our life since our return to Chicago, here's an accelerated photo montage of the past 4-5 months.  Bon apétit!

One of my first El Rides back in the City

Walk through the Loop in the Hot Hot Hot Chicago Summer

Having a picnic at Millenium Park

Beautiful Lake Michigan.  The Lake that Looks like an Ocean

The Best El Stop in Chicago!  I Always Wondered Where I was!

Graffito in Wicker Park

LB Gazing at an Installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art

 One of My Fave Paintings Cuz It's like Abstract + Shit

Interactive Window Mosaic

Life in Miniature

Having Tea at Intelligentsia in Lakeview

Ethiopian Food in Edgewater

I Love My City!

Taken from Navy Pier

LB, Wondering about the Intricacies of Stagflation Reform in Post-Keynsian Economic Policy

Gogo!, Looking like a Nun

 Zoe, Looking Graceful as Nature Calls

So Here We Have Lighters, Right Next to School Supplies

Chicago seen from Chinatown

LB about to Open up Her Birthday Presents

Gogo! in My Arms

Summer Rain in Edgewater

Brunch at Karen's Cooked

The Three Stages of Native Foods' Lavender Lemonade according to LB:  

Stage 1:  Sip

Stage 2:  Yum!

Stage 3:  What the Fuck You Looking at, Mofo?

The Hit and Run that Almost Killed Us, Seen the Next Day.  By the Way, this is just One of the Cars Involved (there were three)

Ravenswood El Stop

In Case You Get Lost + You Don't Know Where You are

Nighttime Walk in the Loop

Morse Festival

A Heart Photograph Taken at the Belmont El Station for My Friend Ivory

South Loop

Millenium Park during the Day

The Bean

Pomengranate Sangria in Andersonville

Edgewater Mural

 

Dinosaur Art in Rogers Park

Homemade Ramen

Late Afternoon Brunch of Vietnamese Sandwiches on Lake Michigan

 Riding the El

Zoe, Basking in the Natural Light

Zoe Giving her Mamá Some Love

Zoe the Orthodox Muslim

Autumn Colors in the Chi during a Long Walk Home

LB Covering Her Face with Lettuce

Shopping on Michigan Avenue

Gogo! as a Pumpkin + Zoe as a Lady Bug

I Voted for this Dude + Cultural Evolution

Before the Movies

City Night Life

Zoe + Gogo! Posing for the Camera

Japanese Lunch in RP

Taking the El in Lakeview

Michigan Avenue during the Holidays

Zoe Posing as Only She Can Pose

Gogo! in His Fancy Tan Turtleneck

Christmas Nutcracker

X-Mas Window

It's an Annual Tradition to Walk down State Street during Christmas time to Look at the Marshall Field's Windows

Our Beautiful Tree

Ah, Beautiful Chicago.  City of Mine.  So Happy to be back