That feeling of strangulation is exactly what drives me to do anything anymore. It's definitely hard to breathe sometimes. F' em, I'm going to enjoy as many breaths as I can.
Thank you for the toast Linh! We all need it.
The Butthole Surfers do a goofy cover of Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man that's pretty sloppy and funny.
It's always pleasant to wake up and see a notice from Postcards. Reading your work in the morning generally makes for a more contemplative day. Much thanks.
I recall your saying a while back that youtube has ignominiously taken down your interview by RT's Chris Hedges. You may want to know that the interview can be viewed in its entirety on RT's website. Following is the link.
Friends of Linh, who have not had the pleasure of seeing that interview, may want to take a look, if only for the pleasure of seeing Linh in his "wedding and funeral suit".
It's Kensington, the place Linh showed to the Cambodian restauranteur who feeds Max.
It is sad to see an articulate, intelligent woman so damaged by her addiction. Other videos of Kensington show addicts who seem hardly human, swaying in weird, twisted postures -- really frightening videos.
Lies, exaggerations, half-truths, fictions, advertising: little stories as much as globe-spanning myths, capturing minds and motivating behaviors. It's always fascinating how it's universal among humans to have such nuanced relationships with truth. So many people wearing masks, yet everything on display shows such immersion in the waste and stench and grime of other's lives, when eating food is gambling for completely unknown jack pots, not knowing if the flavor compensates for the poison, if the protection is just a talisman, if the gossip keeps away personal tragedy. Yet always there's a way to see and touch and savor and adore Beauty, and Comedy.
I appreciate how there's always layers to the postcards, subtle under the scenes. Thank you for your continuing, your gift as practiced, your struggle to keep it real. "Eat, drink, hush," yet thankfully, you can't.
Haha, nice! If you are planning on publishing these diaries as a collection sooner or some day, ring me please for public endorsement (a blurb, a review, I write everything). This is sensational, and I want to be a part of it. Best! 🤪👍
Thanks, Thorsten. Rereading the dialog between me and Max just now, I realize I do say "man" too much, but that's how I talk when I'm buzzed and happy. I must learn how to sound more educated in conversations, but it's probably hopeless.--Linh
Linh. It is your colloquial touch, your eye for the mundane and the normal and the unpretentious which is so attractive. Reading you is like floating down a river in a rowboat. You can feel all the rolls and feel the spray without any effort and the scenery passes by so clearly while you drift past.
You already do what I have always wished I could. You speak human, to humans. I'm autistic so while I express myself exactly as I communicate verbally, it is as natural (and lacking in full stops) as I am. Which I have on good advice is not normal at all. That is not natural sounding to normal people.
Normal people can understand you. These days many of the rules of creative writing are redundant, since few observe them and even fewer notice. Of course re-writing a few times as you know should be sufficient to tidy up enough for these 21st century Philistines.
Of course to be a really good liar you need to be quite intelligent but why would you bother - waste of valuable psychedelic time as someone once said.
Great to read as ever, thanks Linh. And thanks to the reader that gave a link to your Chris Hedges interview. In my time, I have known a genius who was translating the Egyptian Book of the Dead as a child and also once knew a world-class liar. Max reminds me more of the latter - no reason what they say can't be true but it is the time line that lets both of them down in the end, they can't resist loading on far too much to be possible. Your reference to the Butthole Surfers made me think of the Cowboy Junkies for the first time in ages. How about this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Oh wow, they don't do funerals like that in Vietnam? 3 days of chanting and music from dawn to dusk. I had one across the street from my apartment, and by day 2 I was contemplating leaping from my 5th floor balcony.
As for social security, I think Max may be getting ahead of himself. Government benefits are not available to people living in "communist" countries, however nominal.
Thanks so much, Linh! Such a good feeling to see you in my inbox! Great essay. I used to love to go to bars and strike up conversations with patrons. The covid lunacy killed all that. Plus, at 75 I can't handle alcohol as well as I used to.
Depressing story. I might end up in similar straights eventually as Max, but I sure won't be kidding myself about where I am, who I'm with or why I got there.
What sanity is left Linh? I'd drink to forget the insanity for a while, not sure there's enough left to drink to. I do love Siem Reap. I've never seen Angkor Wat either. I have good memories from the place and have spent combined 5-6 months there with just short trips back to Perth for business to break it up, while I had my wife parked there between eloping from Pakistan and getting her into Oz. New Years on Pub Street was a blast. It sounds like the place might have an entirely different feel these days though. Tourism was everything.
Max is the type of quirky but interesting expat who is harder to find these days. Visas have more onerous restrictions which ban them (intentionally). Many of the Eastern Asian countries lust after wealthy Asians and don't want cheap Charlie's even though they are often more generous with the locals.
Also, living over here full or part-time is a lot easier so we are getting more status quo middle class to wealthy "professionals" who have all the approved thoughts allowed on social media.
I can believe that giant snake story. A few years ago in Disney World a little boy got too close to the lake outside of his family's hotel room and was dragged off and eaten by a giant alligator.
I was responding to a guy who claimed to have read War and Peace before he entered the 1st grade, so that was my reaction. This was in the context of a conversation, man. Don't be so defensive...
I'd love to know what country Kent lives in. Out here on L.I. they hold drag queen story hour at the public library one town over from where I live. Weimar Germany had nothing on this bloated corpse of a country. My family says it's the same in the midwest. Sorry, but every negative stereotype of america is true. An open air insane asylum.
That feeling of strangulation is exactly what drives me to do anything anymore. It's definitely hard to breathe sometimes. F' em, I'm going to enjoy as many breaths as I can.
Thank you for the toast Linh! We all need it.
The Butthole Surfers do a goofy cover of Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man that's pretty sloppy and funny.
It's always pleasant to wake up and see a notice from Postcards. Reading your work in the morning generally makes for a more contemplative day. Much thanks.
Dear Linh,
I recall your saying a while back that youtube has ignominiously taken down your interview by RT's Chris Hedges. You may want to know that the interview can be viewed in its entirety on RT's website. Following is the link.
https://www.rt.com/shows/on-contact/380346-america-poverty-stark-statistics/
Friends of Linh, who have not had the pleasure of seeing that interview, may want to take a look, if only for the pleasure of seeing Linh in his "wedding and funeral suit".
Cheers,
Thank you for linking this. It helps to show how Linh Dinh became such a fine journalist.
Shame on GooTube for removing it.
Chris Hedges repeatedly asked what the situation is going to look like. Here is one view:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_3_GsMQ2E8
It's Kensington, the place Linh showed to the Cambodian restauranteur who feeds Max.
It is sad to see an articulate, intelligent woman so damaged by her addiction. Other videos of Kensington show addicts who seem hardly human, swaying in weird, twisted postures -- really frightening videos.
Thanks. I miss RT.
Lies, exaggerations, half-truths, fictions, advertising: little stories as much as globe-spanning myths, capturing minds and motivating behaviors. It's always fascinating how it's universal among humans to have such nuanced relationships with truth. So many people wearing masks, yet everything on display shows such immersion in the waste and stench and grime of other's lives, when eating food is gambling for completely unknown jack pots, not knowing if the flavor compensates for the poison, if the protection is just a talisman, if the gossip keeps away personal tragedy. Yet always there's a way to see and touch and savor and adore Beauty, and Comedy.
I appreciate how there's always layers to the postcards, subtle under the scenes. Thank you for your continuing, your gift as practiced, your struggle to keep it real. "Eat, drink, hush," yet thankfully, you can't.
Haha, nice! If you are planning on publishing these diaries as a collection sooner or some day, ring me please for public endorsement (a blurb, a review, I write everything). This is sensational, and I want to be a part of it. Best! 🤪👍
Thanks, Thorsten. Rereading the dialog between me and Max just now, I realize I do say "man" too much, but that's how I talk when I'm buzzed and happy. I must learn how to sound more educated in conversations, but it's probably hopeless.--Linh
Linh. It is your colloquial touch, your eye for the mundane and the normal and the unpretentious which is so attractive. Reading you is like floating down a river in a rowboat. You can feel all the rolls and feel the spray without any effort and the scenery passes by so clearly while you drift past.
You already do what I have always wished I could. You speak human, to humans. I'm autistic so while I express myself exactly as I communicate verbally, it is as natural (and lacking in full stops) as I am. Which I have on good advice is not normal at all. That is not natural sounding to normal people.
Normal people can understand you. These days many of the rules of creative writing are redundant, since few observe them and even fewer notice. Of course re-writing a few times as you know should be sufficient to tidy up enough for these 21st century Philistines.
Beautifully written piece Linh, but a 5 year old comprehending the nuances of a complex novel like "War & Peace" is nonsense.
Of course he said 'read' not 'understand'. One of my favourite old sayings is 'A cat may look at a king'.
He's probably in Cambodia avoiding alimony payments lol
Of course to be a really good liar you need to be quite intelligent but why would you bother - waste of valuable psychedelic time as someone once said.
He'll fly his astral plane
Takes you trips across the bay
Brings you back the same day
Timothy Leary
What is worse, the lies people tell each other, or the ones we tell ourselves?
Still, better a few harmless liars like Max, than the liars who promote a worldwide vaccination with strange concoctions, and nothing happens to them.
Great to read as ever, thanks Linh. And thanks to the reader that gave a link to your Chris Hedges interview. In my time, I have known a genius who was translating the Egyptian Book of the Dead as a child and also once knew a world-class liar. Max reminds me more of the latter - no reason what they say can't be true but it is the time line that lets both of them down in the end, they can't resist loading on far too much to be possible. Your reference to the Butthole Surfers made me think of the Cowboy Junkies for the first time in ages. How about this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Mi_ZUI6Q1kg 'Cause Cheap Is How I Feel' .
Oh wow, they don't do funerals like that in Vietnam? 3 days of chanting and music from dawn to dusk. I had one across the street from my apartment, and by day 2 I was contemplating leaping from my 5th floor balcony.
As for social security, I think Max may be getting ahead of himself. Government benefits are not available to people living in "communist" countries, however nominal.
Thanks so much, Linh! Such a good feeling to see you in my inbox! Great essay. I used to love to go to bars and strike up conversations with patrons. The covid lunacy killed all that. Plus, at 75 I can't handle alcohol as well as I used to.
Depressing story. I might end up in similar straights eventually as Max, but I sure won't be kidding myself about where I am, who I'm with or why I got there.
What sanity is left Linh? I'd drink to forget the insanity for a while, not sure there's enough left to drink to. I do love Siem Reap. I've never seen Angkor Wat either. I have good memories from the place and have spent combined 5-6 months there with just short trips back to Perth for business to break it up, while I had my wife parked there between eloping from Pakistan and getting her into Oz. New Years on Pub Street was a blast. It sounds like the place might have an entirely different feel these days though. Tourism was everything.
Max is the type of quirky but interesting expat who is harder to find these days. Visas have more onerous restrictions which ban them (intentionally). Many of the Eastern Asian countries lust after wealthy Asians and don't want cheap Charlie's even though they are often more generous with the locals.
Also, living over here full or part-time is a lot easier so we are getting more status quo middle class to wealthy "professionals" who have all the approved thoughts allowed on social media.
I can believe that giant snake story. A few years ago in Disney World a little boy got too close to the lake outside of his family's hotel room and was dragged off and eaten by a giant alligator.
A Dingo ate my baby!
Dude sounds like a character. Good finding him. There is a lot of Western flotsam in Cambodia...
Hi Kent,
I was responding to a guy who claimed to have read War and Peace before he entered the 1st grade, so that was my reaction. This was in the context of a conversation, man. Don't be so defensive...
Linh
I'd love to know what country Kent lives in. Out here on L.I. they hold drag queen story hour at the public library one town over from where I live. Weimar Germany had nothing on this bloated corpse of a country. My family says it's the same in the midwest. Sorry, but every negative stereotype of america is true. An open air insane asylum.
An asylum that no longer holds legitimate elections, but still insists it is the world's best democracy, a shining beacon to the rest of the world.