So, yesterday this Canadian tv show came by my house to interview me. (Do you like how nonchalant I am about all this?) I almost totally forgot they were coming. They called me the day before to remind me and I freaked out because my house was a disaster as it's been since I moved here over two years ago. Oh man, so I spent all day cleaning the living room to set up the perfect spot for the interview. My living room has never looked so clean. I was able to run a vacumm cleaner on the floor. Usually there is so much junk on the floor that I can't vacumm.

I also worked tediously on my face. Getting all this makeup on so I could look edgy and hip for my new friends in Canada(with that little smidge of charm that you all out there in webland love so much ;> ). And trying to stay unsweaty in the heat.

But of course, they didn't want to shoot in the living room, they wanted to shoot in my messy ass computer room that had all sorts of unmentionables all over the floor. I was mortified as they set up the camera and lights and I'd spot a this or that unmentionable on the floor and I would have to quickly kick it under my futon without the Canadians noticing. I was also hot because they had to turn my fan off and the AC doesn't reach that far back into my apartment. Then they had this hot ass light pointed right at my face, making the temperature of my face go up 100 degrees. So big beads of sweat were coming down my forehead as I tried to thoughtfully describe to the interviewer the creation of my gender/ sexuality/ racial identity/ artwork. Every few minutes we had to stop so the interviewer could wipe me down.

Blech.

I think I let Canada know way too much about my personal life. Every third sentence during the interview I found myself turning to the camera, looking at it head-on and saying, "Oh my god, I can't believe I let all of Canada know that."

Oh well. No take-backs. And no regrets. And not like it will make the final tape anyway-- right? Right?!?

I happened to have these maple leaf shaped cookies from Canada that I got as a present last week (the kind you buy at Duty Free at the Canadian airport to have something "Canadian" to give to you friends at home). So when the Canadian crew came in, I held up the box like Donna Reed and squealed, "Look what I have for you! A little taste of home!!"

They had a great sense of humor about it and joked, "Yeah, we eat those every morning for breakfast." And they ate a lot of the cookies too. That was cute.

I wonder if I was making them feel the way foreign exchange students feel when they show up at their host family's house. I was asking them all sorts of dumb things like if they really keep their doors unlocked and if it's hard to get dream jobs like they had. I seem to have this impression (thank you Michael Moore) that everyone in Canada is skipping around and hugging and throwing money at anyone who needs it and having a great time.

But I was so impressed by this project. This was a major network show in Canada that puts on this documentary style tv show. This particular show was exploring Asian Americans/ Asian Canadians and their outlooks on sexuality and looking at how it is formed. They got some pretty amazing interviewees ( a great pool of academics, artists, sex workers) and a nice budget to work with. And it's almost the kind of project that you'd see an indie filmmaker here struggle to get grants and barely pay for. I was shocked that a major tv station anywhere would even care to take on a topic that seems so specific. But leave it to good ol' Canada to prove me wrong.

But it's kind of true that some of the best "smart" programming comes from overseas. "Smart" media is just better funded and more valued overseas. Art is supported better in every other industrialized country in the world. Education is also way better funded in other first world countries. And art and education are the two things that keep a country's citizens thinking critically, relating to humanity and reflecting on their position in the world. I really don't think we have that here in America. I think very few Americans have access to the art and education that can allow us to critically think, question, and examine the world we live in. We already have to import our news from overseas to figure out what the heck it is we are doing in other countries. Soon, we will be getting art and ideas from the same places too. I really believe that in ten years, if the devaluation of American art and culture continues the way it has been, we will be importing our intellectual ideas, art, cultural studies, social critiques and humanity from Canada. (?)

I think it's pretty funny that my friend Gennifer the sex worker/ performance artist/ activist went to Canada this past week to put up a multimedia art exhibit and had parallel realizations about how awesome Canada is. She was up there in Canada while the Canadian crew was down here in America talking to different artists. She would have been perfect for their tv show.

Gennifer seems to think the same thing I am feeling about Canadians and Canada according to her blog this week. It's like we were in different countries both having our "Canada Experience" these past few days.

Canada just makes sense. Plain and simple!

Just from meeting the crew that came by and talking to them briefly, I was convinced that maybe Canada is in my stars. (But way way in the future.)

Anyhow, the show should air in a couple of months. The best part is they shot b-roll of me biking into my apartment building. That's what I am more excited by than anything else!

BIRTHDAY AND BIKES

So my birthday is this Friday. I am sharing my birthday party with my friend Yi whose birthday already passed. We figured we have all of 5 friends, so might as well try to put them together and see how many people actually come. Actually our evite list is over 300 people, but we think less than 20 will actually come. We are doing our party in Malibu. A dinner by the beach and then running around by the water after.So cute.

And our whole birthday thing is we are saying that it is our 22nd birthday (because it is, of course). We are doing our party on Saturday even though we could have done it on Friday. Yi says she doesn't want to celebrate "our" birthday on "my" day which is why we had to do it the day after my actual birthday. Which sucks because I have no plans on Friday and I don't want to yank my friends away for two days in a row. So I may actually spend my b-day hanging out alone... crying. Thanks Yi.

Anyway, for real though, can I tell everyone again how much I love bikes? I am currently researching trips around the world that can be done by bicycle. The biggest pain about the bike riding has been the soreness and the points in the day when I have to try to carry my heavy ass bike onto the bus bikerack. That sucks. I have bruises all over my legs from the bike banging into me. But I can say I've really never been so happy in my life. I have been car-free for five days now! It's great! And I eat out to reward myself because I can afford to.

Here are some pics below of me, Keiko, Aiden and of course, the bike. I brought the bike by to the OPM show to show it off.

And here is a close-up on the bike. I tricked it out with fake flowers, a dragonfly lawn ornament, foil sticker stars and streamers. I ordered a mini-license plate that says "wongster" from a site I found online. I can't wait until it comes and I will add it.

Don't be jealous,

Kristina