PinnedSteve Lacy struggles with, and celebrates, painstaking self-awareness in his newest album Gemini RightsIt’s rare these days for a piece of music to make me feel genuine joy while simultaneously delivering hard truth. …Music5 min readMusic5 min read
Dec 12, 2020Striving to be kindredI read an article about one of my favorite musicians who called another one of my favorite musicians a ‘kindred soul.’ And it felt like two of my friends who had never met before but were destined to get along finally crossed paths and blossomed a whole new world together…2 min read2 min read
Aug 6, 202075 years after the atomic bomb changed her life, Hiroshima survivor speaks out on trauma and the need to rememberOn August 6th, 1945, nine-year old Mihoko was swinging in her elementary school playground in Hiroshima when the world’s first atomic bomb dropped and thrust her under rubble. In the teaching of history, the bomb is often lauded as a triumph of USA’s science and an end to what was…History6 min readHistory6 min read
Apr 16, 2020His dream is written in Spanish: juggling of identity in Netflix’s ‘Gentefied’The song “Ojos Del Sol” by Y La Bamba plays over a scene of a father and son waking up in their van and eating Pop Tarts. The song carries through the rest of the two minutes of the episode as both prepare to leave Los Angeles permanently for a…Culture5 min readCulture5 min read
Feb 6, 2020Timelessness in the music of FishmansI remember pedaling my mother’s bike machine as “BABY BLUE” by Fishmans — a Japanese dub band prominent in the 90's — popped up in my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist. The song was simple and long: six minutes of a repeated keyboard chord on every upbeat of the drums, supported…Music5 min readMusic5 min read
Dec 23, 2019FocusFocus becomes an annoying thing to both lack and have. For example, I’m writing this now because I couldn’t focus on reading my book because I got so fixated on the author’s stream of consciousness that I began to think that maybe it wouldn’t be so boring for people to…Writing2 min readWriting2 min read
Oct 11, 2019Before I can accept the errors of my conceitDear guy with the deep voice talking loudly in the coffee shop, I get it, you’re a social guy. You love telling stories and having people listen. Or perhaps you’re just lonely. …Coffee2 min readCoffee2 min read
May 21, 2019Read This On Your Bad WeekMirrors and planes always play a huge role in lots of my writing. Everything is a self-portrait, and life is always in motion. I had a moment last week looking in the mirror, feverish, coming off of two weeks of fasting for Ramadan with fatigue so intense my eyes bulged…Life Lessons5 min readLife Lessons5 min read
May 8, 2019The moments of clarity in ‘Ramy’“On a scale from 1 to 5, how comfortable are you with your cultural identity?” “3 most days, some days it’s a 5 and others it’s a 2. It just depends on the scenario.” I think back to this conversation I had with someone who interviewed me for a class…Ramy5 min readRamy5 min read
Nov 3, 2018Rosalía and my mother’s cleaning music: influences of diaspora on the singer’s careerBoring, I thought. The first time I listened all the way through Rosalía’s debut album, Los Angeles, all I could think about was that, boring. …Music9 min readMusic9 min read
