The Pen and Camera | writer, director, bibliophile, mother, plant enthusiast, yogi, essayist

Book Review 0

The Comeback – ELLA BERMAN

The Comeback by Ella Berman

The pandemic keeps me at home, but it’s the fires raging across the west coast that force me to stay indoors. I select books that keep me from feeling like every day is groundhog day. I read books to temporarily escape the disasters within the disasters within the disasters. It’s practically fall now. 2020 creeps past us in a figurative and literal haze.

So let’s time-travel to an (only) slightly simpler time. We don’t go too far. We back up by one year, when our collective consciousness, shamefully, had not yet grappled with racial injustice; when the news cycle was not yet littered with Covid-19 death counts; and when watching The Kardashians was seen as nothing more than mindless, yet relatively harmless reality tv salad. Let’s go back, just for the duration of Ella Berman’s novel “The Comeback”, to a time when #metoo was at the forefront of our twitter feeds.

Book Review 0

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers – MARY ROACH

I don’t know about you, but this year my death anxiety crept up on me like a colony of ants that wriggles its way over an unassuming child’s arm sitting in a meadow.

Instead of dealing with it the way I usually do, which is by reading books on spirituality, I went straight for a comedic, factual, and rather unself-helpy take on what happens with our physical bodies once we die.

Book Review, Lifestyle, Writing Craft/Creativity 0

The Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness & Open Your Heart – PATRICIA DONEGAN

Poetry is one of those genres that’s been hard for me to get into. I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s because I’ve tried to live the past few years with narrative clarity. Poetry, much like lyrics to certain songs, leave so much to interpretation that it requires a certain type of patience to look between the lines and find meaning. Continue Reading “The Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness & Open Your Heart – PATRICIA DONEGAN”

Lifestyle 0

The Gift of Time – JORD

I have long been drawn to all things vintage. I love typewriters for example. They are there for you to write stories and nothing more. Record players only play music for you to enjoy. And watches are there to exclusively tell time and only time.

I have fond memories of my father collecting watches back in the 80s and 90s. He seemed fascinated with both the mechanics and the internal miniature architecture. Every week, I would watch him push his eyeglass above his forehead, so he could inspect his wrist treasures up close and personal. It’s my favorite image of my father.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m in awe of my smart phone. It’s so smart, it can show me movies, play music, let me read books and tell time and weather conditions all across the globe at the press of the button. As I’ve grown older in the age of digital multi-purpose technology, however, I have begun to fully embrace these trinkets of the past. They are mindful. They slow our fast paced life down. I often find myself writing journal entries on my typewriter. I have a record player to play jazz music on as I sip on my morning coffee. And yes, I have begun a tiny collection of watches just like my dad, which some of you may have spotted on my instagram account.

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Drama, Movie Review, Screenplay Review 0

Gook – JUSTIN CHON

Talk about breaking Asian American stereotypes in cinema! Justin Chon, writer, director and main actor of “Gook” brings to you the movie that many of us Asian Americans have been waiting for. He does what I’ve always wanted to do as an artist; he screams “Hey, your life is shitty, but so is mine. Quit pretending that I don’t exist.”

Continue Reading “Gook – JUSTIN CHON”

Writing Craft/Creativity 1

On Joy and Rejection

Last week, I was undulating between two emotions: pride and disappointment. For one, my film I CAN I WILL I DID screened at the Asian American International Film Festival in New York to a sold out crowd. It was invited back for an encore screening the following week and picked up its third festival award (this time the Audience Choice Award). In addition to that, we received invitations to two mainstream film festivals. I am beyond thrilled! I want to thank my Facebook friends, film collaborators and blogging community for the kind congratulatory words that were sent my way. Filmmakers bare their souls for everyone to see and make themselves vulnerable to scrutiny and pain. An audience that is moved by what you have to say, is everything.

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Book Review, Dystopian 0

The Handmaid’s Tale – MARGARET ATWOOD

We are living in an era that has enabled an openly misogynist man to become president. Backed in part by alt-right religious fanatics, Trump’s administration actively works on dismantling protections for minority groups, including women. Reading Margaret Atwood’s 1986 novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” against this backdrop strikes a particularly sensitive chord with me. Her story is set in a world that represents my worst fears, a world where I’m no longer allowed to follow my passions such as reading, writing and filmmaking, and where I have been forced to relinquish autonomy over my own body. Continue Reading “The Handmaid’s Tale – MARGARET ATWOOD”

Book Review, Contemporary Fiction 0

The Summer that Melted Everything – TIFFANY MCDANIEL

This is Tiffany McDaniel’s debut novel, and let me tell you… that is one hell of a novel! Set in the Midwestern town of Breathed in the mid-80’s, The Summer That Melted Everything is a story about the strange happenings surrounding the arrival of a young black boy. True to time and setting, we are thrust into a saga that tackles everything from racism, prejudice, small-town mob mentality, homophobia, and HIV/AIDS. It’s easy to want to turn my back on a narrative that normalizes these cringe worthy characters, but McDaniel manages to infuse so much compassion and empathy in these people that I find myself strangely drawn to the anti-heroes of her tale. Continue Reading “The Summer that Melted Everything – TIFFANY MCDANIEL”

Movie Review, Writing Craft/Creativity 0

On Whiskey and Wonder Woman

I’m with Brian, my husband of nearly two years. We enter a fancy New York lounge and he immediately strolls toward the bar. i’m right behind him, waiting for him to order my go-to drink. The bartender does his thing and then comes back with the two beverages.
“Here you go,” he cheerfully says. “One Jameson neat and one Stella.”
He pushes the whiskey glass toward my husband and hands me the beer.

Continue Reading “On Whiskey and Wonder Woman”