Viva Joy Riot!

Gung Hay Fat Choy

2012-01-23T12:57:00.000-08:00

thank you to shawn clover It's the year of the Water Dragon, y'all! Things to do on the Lunar New Year*: 1. Clean house (sweep out old ill will & bad luck and make room for the auspicious New) 2. Decorate the house with red: it symbolizes joy and in Mandarin the word for red is homophonous with prosperity. 3. Wear red to scare away bad spirits/luck. According to a Chinese acquaintance of mine

May the Force Be With You... And Also with You

2011-08-28T23:45:00.000-07:00

Advance warning: this is not the clearest or even most interesting post I've ever written. I'm tired, and probably should have held onto this puppy for further elaboration and editing before posting it, but I'm impatient to discover what, if anything it means. Try to be kind. I had a perplexing dream last night. (Brief pause for some Choose Your Own Adventuring. If you're thinking: Who didn't

Look around you: Art/Magic is Everywhere

2011-08-12T13:09:00.000-07:00

Are you a morning person or a night owl? I consider myself a lark; that is, I feel my best self in the morning hours. I guess my daughter is, too, because most mornings she sounds off her toddler-reveille between 6 and 6:45 am. Not an ungodly hour, by any means. For a non-negotiable wake up time, however, 6-something certainly falls on the earlier side. And so the system we've developed is to

Bahia or Bust: PART THREE Samba Seeps In

2011-08-08T19:02:00.000-07:00

If you're just jumping on board VJR for the first time, you'll want to read the two previous installments of this series here. Ana's class. Brasil Brasil Cultural Center. I have to force myself into the crowded room, onto the uneven floors. Most of the women fall somewhere on the skin tone spectrum between caramel and ebony. I am prepared to flaunt my pretty pretty ButterflyPony dance moves,

Bahia or Bust: PART TWO In Which Our Heroine Finds Herself Falling Into Every Cultural Imperialist- and Chick Flick/Lit-Cliche in the Book

2011-07-26T11:26:00.000-07:00

IN our last chapter,Bahia or Bust, I explained the genesis of my fascination with Brasil. Here, the fascination takes root. The last place anyone would expect to get bored would be a successful international art and erotica publisher. But circa 2005, that was me. My job was to hunt down world-class celebrities (politicians, spiritual leaders, actors, athletes and rock stars from the 1960's

Bahia or Bust: PART ONE Beats, Beauty and Brazil

2011-07-12T08:41:00.000-07:00

Lots of us, if we are lucky or willing enough to admit it, experience some sort of irrational affection for a place we know nothing about. Just the sound of the name of the place, one photo in an encyclopedia or on a travel poster is like a beacon, a promise. Some put it down to a past life association that manifests in this life in inexplicable ways: Mr. B suffers from a near total lack of

Happiness: It's in the Bag

2011-07-03T12:29:00.000-07:00

Hedonic adjustment: just a fancy way of saying that the things that make you happy right now probably won't 5 minutes, 5 days and especially 5 months from now. I know full well of the theory that humans are wired to acclimate to the highs of new sources of happiness, until they wear off completely and we are forced to go out looking for something else to get us Up. I'm well familiar with it. And

Day Dreams of L.A.

2011-06-20T13:26:00.000-07:00

Say what you will about Los Angeles, you've got to admit it is the American capital of good weather. People come here from around the globe to bask in our temperate Mediterranean zone and unrivaled 3,000 hours of annual sunshine. In the immortal words of Joe Walsh, however, "I can't complain but sometimes I still do". Though I try not to whine much, somehow I manage to find something to bitch

We Finally Got a Piece of the Pie (a la mode)

2011-06-20T10:52:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official, readers; we're movin' on up. VJR Headquarters has transplanted, relocated, uprooted. You can now get your fill of the contents of my brain here, at my very own site: www.vivajoyriot.com. Thanks to my cousin J, I am now the proud owner of my own domain. He had the brilliant idea to host my site, and only a year and a half later, I've finally taken him up on the offer (

How Can I Be Sure of You

2011-06-08T12:48:00.000-07:00

For your visual and aural consumption today I submit one of the world's best songs, by Harry Nilsson. If you aren't familiar with him, you can find him filed under MUSICAL GENIUS, in the "Woefully Under-appreciated" section, under the subset "Died penniless, way too early". Beware however, this stellar song is set to possibly the world's worst video, if measured in terms of visual quality and

beast of burden

2011-06-06T14:47:00.000-07:00

Whereas most domestic flights allow each passenger two pieces of checked luggage, and one small carry-on, today my metaphorical baggage feels slightly over the limit. Something like this, in fact. Sacramento Airport It is a tired cliche that the useless, outgrown thoughts we lug around in our head to no good purpose are called (in pop psychobabble terms, anyway) "baggage". But it is an apt

Just because I can doesn’t mean I should. Just because I want to doesn’t mean I will.

2011-06-03T14:19:00.000-07:00