Learned some new things about Alzheimers--

Learned some new things about Alzheimers--

Today

I did not know that some have hallucinations--
for e.g. said on the phone--
"I am in Paris today" ( I made up this conversation)
"We went to Pere Lachaise Cemetery to see the graves of all the famous people. Tomorrow, we will leave from Gare St Lazare."

I asked if the details, such as travel itineraries, in these were correct.
"No, they are sometimes off."
"And before this, had she been to all these places."
"Oh yes. She was an anthropologist."
I also learned what "mixing nouns" means.
Someone could be holding a book and say, "I did not drink your coffee."
In one recent NYTS article, the mother invented a boyfriend for one of the aunts, "Mr.Perfect," with a name and profession and everything.
And the family would go along with it as it is easier to go along than to try and explain to a person with dementia that such a person does not exist.
So they'd talk abt --
but when the Alz patient knew she was about to die, she killed off Mr. Perfect.
Some hallucinations could take the form--
"I killed all these children. There was a lot of blood, and the police arrested me."
It has, what one would call, the logic of fiction, that she still knew she would be arrested if she committed a crime.
In one or two cases I have heard of, the granny saved up rags and made dolls which she played with and gave names.
In the novel Middlesex, the woman who married her biological brother learned that her husband/brother was losing his memory progressively from the most recent backwards.
So she was concerned he'd retrogress to the stage where he would remember the incest.
But people just thought he was crazy and making things up.
That novel, by Jeffrey Eugenides, "explains" so beautifully how incest would be possible say in a very isolated village in wartime, and how generations of intermarriage might produce a hermaphrodite.
I find the novel with it's geographic setting, in Smyrna, Greece, very intriguing.
After all, the medical facts would take only 2 lines to describe clinically, but it all seems plausible as the political events and the migration to a new world, with an erased old world (personal) history, is so well done.
KMKaung
4-30-2015
Why we need fiction/A Time to Write.


Photo--Old wall in Chiangmai with holes--KMKaung

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Sometimes stewing leads to good results--from my memoir

I remember all the years in the 1980s when D would meet me at Trenton Train Station to visit his mother and the rest of his family in Princeton.

In the car, he would tell me about what had happened--for e.g U ZB came back from Burma and was steaming (in 1988) and I would steam some more.

Eventually all that steaming like garbanzo beans in Rumi's poetry who are pushed down by a ladle to cook some more,

became my Ph.D. disstn and more.

In my disstn I proposed a theory of why totalitarian countries do not develop, looking at Burma, the then Soviet Union, and Zaire, and management theory.

They don't develop because they hold everything down--

and they don't allow anything independent to grow or flourish.

Then they become victims of their own top down control/command economy.

I tried to explain this to some journalists, but they just looked blank when I said Planning Theory, Management Models, Development Models, defects of central planning.

A sort of summary is in my 1994? Asian Survey article--it is being cited a lot these days.

It outlines the "models" Burma has been following and why it all failed.

If you wish to talk to me about the current so-called reforms, message me and set up a formal interview.

I can tell you why it is so-called and not real, and also why if it goes on this way--

1.  the temporary hopeful boom will slump--probably after this 2015 so-called election.
2.  it will go the way of Russia, with a lot of oligarchs/cronies and pol section (read "Putin") fighting the oligarchs/cronies.

--and more pressing on dissent and media.

THE TEST--

Which general or crony (I just mis-typed "corny") has sent their kids to attend univ in Burma--

tell me that.

Then you can decide whether it has succeeded or not.

Where do they buy their property or keep their accts.

I have not heard it is in Burma.

I usually hear or read "houses in Shanghai, children at Shanghai Normal Univ., in Geneva, Singapore, in Dubai, in UAE." "They have all got US visas now."

Even Mr NW himself in 1980s went to W Germany to buy arms with a reported trunkful of gems, not his own kyats.  (Far Eastern Eco Review)

Go figure, I am sick of talking to "tango dancers"--they can dance with the Burmese bear till it slaps them wet wun poke te--taking off 1/2 their faces, break their backs or all slip on the floors--

it is not my concern--I am just an observer, not a dancer,

I did not make the slick dance floor, I did not tell them to wear high heels

I did not tell them "go tango with the junta."

copyright kmk
from my memoir A Front Row Seat.

4-28-2015

If you do not live near a bookstore--

All my books are available on Amazon, everything I have written since about 1994 incld my Ph.D. dissertation can be found by Googling

K.Kaung or K.M.Kaung for fiction--can be bought on Amazon and other outlets in print and e book formats.

Kyi May Kaung for poetry and nonfiction, political commentary.

Thanks for your support.

KMK
4-27-2015

My short story collection No Crib for a Bed, is at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington DC

My short story collection No Crib for a Bed by K.Kaung, is at Politics and Prose Bookstore on Connecticut Av. in Washington, DC.
It is shelved near the Opus book machine by the big window on a small shelf--

with the spine out, but I am concerned as the print on my spine is small.

Pl ask the young man who sits at the computer close by.

If you are at the Tacoma Branch, ask for the book, and they said they will bring it from their flagship store.

The title story first appeared in Gravity Dancers, DC Women Writers, edited by Richard Peabody.

Thank you all for your support.

BTW, the Anthony Doer Pulitzer Prize winning novel is out of stock, but they will take your order.

I read the beginning, and as in The Shell Collector, the writing is elegant and unforgettable.

I still have some stories left to read in The Shell Collector.

I like them so much I am saving for a special treat.

Today I read 2 autographed children's books, both by my favorite authors.

I bought both, as I also have bought their earlier books for my special people.

I am their primary book buyer.

The books are just gorgeous.

KMKaung
4-27-2015

I am also cited here--

https://books.google.com/books?id=t09BvRA3VRYC&pg=PA208&lpg=PA208&dq=Kyi+May+Kaung&source=bl&ots=3Rd2uhMeTT&sig=c0L4VTyZOXoeIHrn0Xza1UONOOg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Zro9VcXzFcmxggTaw4HQCw&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBzgK#v=onepage&q=Kyi%20May%20Kaung&f=false

A book which agrees with me--

A refreshing book from 2007 that says it like it is without usual mumbo jumbo--

I don't know why this book was not lauded more, maybe for the usual reason.  Why did I not find out about it earlier?

I am happy and honored my Asian Survey article was cited here.

https://books.google.com/books?id=4-uUdq9CSc0C&pg=PA193&lpg=PA193&dq=Kyi+May+Kaung&source=bl&ots=SJ7I0vQoyi&sig=Ue4_oVv-RSzCYWzg2iV4nGbnYg4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=yLM9VYemIIiaNpLngbAD&ved=0CC8Q6AEwBDgU#v=onepage&q=Kyi%20May%20Kaung&f=false

Malabar fish biriani--

Malabar fish biriani--

Never have I seen a cook or chef cooking in a silk sari with full contingent of matching sapphire jewelry, but H's boss' wife never differentiated between wedding wear and home/cooking wear, and would cook in nylon jackets and full make up.

I myself cook in old clothes I am going to throw in the wash due to the cooking odors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l94SuZ4XDAc

This recipe can be cooked with reduced salt, Smart Balance or other butter substitute instead of ghee, and non fat milk to make own yogurt.

Happy cooking--I am trying this tomorrow with tilapia fillets.

KMKaung
4-26-2015

My review in Truthout of U Win Tin's What's That? A Human Hell.

http://www.truth-out.org/archive/component/k2/itemlist/user/38060

Kyi May Kaung's movie review of The Woman in Gold

I went to see the movie Woman in Gold, about the Gustav Klimt portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer that the German govt had to return to Maria Altman (played here in movie by Helen Mirren).

I forgot there was a party in the party room to discuss activities (recreational) in the building--but I had already decided I could not volunteer anytime so I did not miss it that much.  When I got home, people were coming out of the party room in their party clothes, and smiling and talking to each other, so they must have had some wine to drink.
--
Anyway, back to the movie.

It was Excellent.  Very moving and very easy to relate to, very well-written, and the flashbacks woven in very well, esp. the memory around the apotek or chemist's (pharmacy)--

It was easy to relate to Altman saying, "But I would have to go there, and I don't want to go there.  These people (?) took from me my home, my loved ones, my life.  I would not go back for a million paintings."  These may not be the actual words as I was not taking notes in the movie theatre.

I did not know that the lawyer (real name) is the grandson of the composer (also Jewish) Arnold Schonberg (who died in Treblinka), and I wonder if this Altman has anything to do with that wonderful dept store I liked so much, B. Altman's in NY.

Anyway, the movie is worth seeing, and Berlin looks like Berlin.

Even on a short trip, when I was out of the cocoon provided by our hosts, I saw some racism and racist/totalitarian types, like the woman in the bathroom (read abt her in my story My Potsdam, now available on Amazon)

I know Berlin too has a lot of bad memories just under the surface, just like Cambodia, just like S. Korea.

Therefore I did not go to see Hitler's bunker, and may never do so, though we did see the Holocaust Memorial--I remember its maze-like construction, reminiscent of the maze in JK Rawling and in a recent movie--

In Berlin, I would now and then sight the 2 Vietnamese poets between the aisles, the sides of which were a bit like gravestones, and try and click a photo.

When I was in NY this time, I knew Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer was on display at the Neue Gallerie, and I even wrote the address down, but in the end was too tired to go.

I wish I had a spare $500 to make another trip, but I don't.

But it is good to know that it will be on display always, and that eventually, after Maria Altman got back the painting, it was sold to Lauder (of Estee Lauder fame) for 135 m $$

and so, story ended "happily" even though none of the Holocaust victims can be brought back to life again, nor their other property returned.

This movie should be seen in conjunction with Monuments Men.

If you are overseas (from USA) and wish to come on an art trip, you must pay you way all the way--however, if you tell me in advance, I can meet up with you in the Neue Gallerie for a few hours.

As I always say, I wish all those "Burma people" would have other interests than Burma--

they would learn so much by studying how Jews were killed in Germany--after first being ostracized as less than human--

they could read Maus for instance

or The Last Days of Hitler by Hugh Trevor Roper.

Nuremburg--both the book and the movie which was based on the book, are both also excellent.

I know someone who visits this blog actually went to see the courtroom at Nuremburg.

I have only been to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, and the Memorial in Lublin, Poland--but I will never forget any of it.

I hope one day the dog cells and coffin cells of Insein will be shown to the world, and be nothing but a sorry museum with sad memories.

It was an experience, to park on the white line which had once been the Berlin Wall.  So many stories, so many people killed trying to cross to freedom.

KMKaung
4-25-2015

K.M.Kaung: My review of the movie Foxcatcher--

I went to see the wrestling movie Foxcatcher Farm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxcatcher
about the 1988 murder of wrestling coach Dave Schultz by Dupont heir John E. Dupont. 

5 out of 5 stars but super depressing.

I lived in Philadelphia at the time, but I must have missed this high profile murder case as 1988 was the start of many troubles for me, including my whole head of hair going white.
In any case, it is a very good movie.
I got interested in it as my friends who live in the area drove through Liseter Estates, a new devt in DE (everyone knows the Dupont family owns the whole state of DE), last summer.  In the large development, million dollar homes are stacked on top of each other, and there is only one large house on the other side of the road from the development.

It is a new house, not the original mansion.

The landscape in the movie looks just the way it is.

In 1980s clothes and styles of course.

The acting, story etc. all very good, with a lot of homosexual overtones, which the surviving brother has publicly objected to.

I think it became possible to film this movie, though I don't know who owned the rights, bc Dupont died in prison in 2010.

It's a good movie, esp. the very scary wrestling scenes.

Why did I go to see it?

In the back of my mind is a story about women's wrestling, that is all I will say now, and also I am always interested in how real stories are filmed or staged.

I don't know how the actor who played Mark Schultz changed his body from top athlete to cocaine addict--

and then shaped up again after a crash program from his brother.

In all, it's a movie abt how the stinking rich think they can buy anything and get away with anything--

but it does say something for the US justice system that the murderer was arrested, was sentenced and was imprisoned and Mrs. Schultz (I won't say which one as there is a twist, which in fact I anticipated, in the end)--

anyway the Schultz heirs received a substantial wrongful death payment, which they should have.

You can't go and shoot someone point blank like that.

This movie should be seen in Burma--even in pirated form.

Because B is now going the way of money money money, right?

KMKaung
4-23-2015

PS. for how the movie differs from real life, read the wiki link I have provided.  For one thing Mark Schultz was married during the time he was funded

My poem Geese profiled in an article together with Tin Moe's poetry--

Quote from “Have I become stateless?” - http://t.co/mj69rMFPQF

accessed 4-22-2015:

Many of Tin Moe’s poems were translated into English by fellow Myanmar poet Kyi May Kaung. Kaung received political asylum in the US in 1989 after the failure of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Myanmar, and she has been railing against the prevailing military junta with paintbrush and pen ever since. Her poem “Geese” opens with a question: “Are those clouds or are those mountains[?]” By not providing an answer the poet shuns exactitude and opens the door to possibility. The setting is dawn – a time of new beginnings, uncertainty and possibility. Only the geese seem sure of themselves, “flying in one straight / line”. The poet muses: “I must ask the geese”, but this intention is not enacted, so it remains a possibility, a dream.

A committed activist and campaigner for a free and democratic Myanmar, Kaung’s idealism is writ large in this poem. For her, the way forward is clear and hopeful even if the details are “with the mist”.

“Geese”

by Kyi May Kaung

Are those clouds

or are those mountains

rising – from the

horizon – with the mist.

I must ask the geese

honking at dawn

flying in one straight

line – across the

lake – their shadows below

them.

End quote.

I don't have a photo of the geese, as I stepped out of the small B & B in Sigtuna near Stockholm very early in the morning.  But of course I remember the exact moment I was referring to in the poem.

kmk
4-22=2015

One year anniversary of renowned writer/Burma dissident U Win Tin's death--

Here is his New York Times obituary--

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/22/world/asia/u-win-tin-writer-jailed-by-myanmar-junta-dies.html?_r=1

Movie Mongol (entire film)--not way it really happened, but Russian version dubbed in French--

Not the way it happened in The Secret History of the Mongols--Russian version dubbed in French.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRVLcTctZjg

I still think the Secret History rings the most true, and is also the oldest account.

Published Home is Where in print edition--

https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=K+Kaung+home+is+where&sitesearch_type=STORE

This is the print edition.  My Potsdam is based on a trip I took to Potsdam, after a conference in Berlin, where I was invited as one of 6 SE Asian Writers who dare to confront.

Published my story collection Home is Where?

http://www.amazon.com/Home-Where-Housewarming-My-Potsdam-ebook/dp/B00UC9WQ3I/ref=sr_1_7?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429279283&sr=1-7

This is the e-edition for Kindle and you may also find my other books listed here.

My Potsdam is set in Potsdam and is inspired by a trip I took to Berlin in 2005 at the invitation of the House of World Culture, as one of 6 SE Asian writers who dares to confront.  They found us on the web.
Among other attendees were writers Marianne Villaneuva, Prabda Yoon, Rattawut, Linh Dinh and Goonawan Mohammed, founder of Tempo, known as the Indonesian Time Magazine.

Housewarming is set in the greater DC area.

Home is Where is set in Rangoon, Philadelphia and Washington DC, Dupont Circle.

Read more in my book.

Secret History of the Mongols--BBC documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnUiOqsYtno

I was interviewed for Wild River Review by Wendy Steginsky in 2007

http://www.wildriverreview.com/4/profile_kaung.php

Interning for 3 weeks at the World Trade Center Towers in New York City in 1987 by Kyi May Kaung (Ph.D.)

 Looking at last photo of WTC taken abt 8.30AM on 9/11/2001--at the 9/11 Memorial

 Present NY City skyline 2015 copyright KMKaung

With--Top Financial Institution -- "to set up a stock market in Burma."

Someone named George P. called us.  They wanted us to intern for 3 weeks in their offices in one of the WTC towers in NY.  I have forgotten which tower it was exactly, and of course I can't use the real name of the company, but it is still a very well regarded one, and has nothing whatsoever to do with "The Company" i.e. The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) not Culinary Inst of America.  Real CIA is based in Langley, VA.  Any fool shld know that.
So, it was high Summer and we went these by train.  A week later, GP asked for some papers, and I was homesick for Philadelphia, so I went back on the train on the weekend and got them.  We were paid $700 per week and housing provided.
But the very curious thing was, not before, not during the 3 weeks and not after, did anyone come to talk to us, ask for written memos, or ask us our thoughts.
We tried to prepare ourselves.
I walked over to the bookstore on Wall St and bought some books and boned up on Municipal Bonds, ratings, stock market terms etc.  I assumed my brief would be "How to set up a stock market in Burma." and my friend, who was registered at the Wharton School would prepare a paper on "Privatization in Burma".  We were contacted through our scholarship agency, Fulbright.
But all the time, up there on the tower, in the beautiful offices, actually looking down on Lady Liberty's head in the far distance, where she looked the size of a 6 inch statuette surrounding by glistening blue waters, and some boats and tugboats plying the waters, not a single person contacted us about what we were supposed to be doing there.
They all looked busy with their own thing, and did not even speak to us.  Very strange.
I think my friend Y was able to find out more.  In spite of the beige colored clothes she wears, and her severe expression, she is actually more of a people person than I am.  I really don't talk well with people I do not know.
Y. talked a lot abt Privatization under Mrs. Thatcher's govt in UK at that time.  She went upstairs and spoke to the librarian, or somebody in a supervisory position.  In Rangoon, when we were being chosen for the scholarships, we went through a battery of tests and one of them was a psychological quiz, that labeled Y an extrovert, and me an introvert, and on the WTC Tower, we did act true to type.
With--Top Financial Institution -- "to set up a stock market in Burma."

Someone named George P. called us.  They wanted us to intern for 3 weeks in their offices in one of the WTC towers in NY.  I have forgotten which tower it was exactly, and of course I can't use the real name of the company, but it is still a very well regarded one, and has nothing whatsoever to do with "The Company" i.e. The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) not Culinary Inst of America.  Real CIA is based in Langley, VA.  Any fool shld know that.
So, it was high Summer and we went these by train.  A week later, GP asked for some papers, and I was homesick for Philadelphia, so I went back on the train on the weekend and got them.  We were paid $700 per week and housing provided.
But the very curious thing was, not before, not during the 3 weeks and not after, did anyone come to talk to us, ask for written memos, or ask us our thoughts.
We tried to prepare ourselves.
I walked over to the bookstore on Wall St and bought some books and boned up on Municipal Bonds, ratings, stock market terms etc.  I assumed my brief would be "How to set up a stock market in Burma." and my friend, who was registered at the Wharton School would prepare a paper on "Privatization in Burma".  We were contacted through our scholarship agency, Fulbright.
But all the time, up there on the tower, in the beautiful offices, actually looking down on Lady Liberty's head in the far distance, where she looked the size of a 6 inch statuette surrounding by glistening blue waters, and some boats and tugboats plying the waters, not a single person contacted us about what we were supposed to be doing there.
They all looked busy with their own thing, and did not even speak to us.  Very strange.
I think my friend Y was able to find out more.  In spite of the beige colored clothes she wears, and her severe expression, she is actually more of a people person than I am.  I really don't talk well with people I do not know.
Y. talked a lot abt Privatization under Mrs. Thatcher's govt in UK at that time.  She went upstairs and spoke to the librarian, or somebody in a supervisory position. 

In Rangoon, when we were being chosen for the scholarships, we were put through a battery of tests.  One was a psychological quiz which said Y was an extrovert, and me and introvert, and yet Y never married, while I did.
Certainly, interning at the WTC Towers, we acted true to type.  We mostly spoke to each other in Burmese, standing up near the reception desk at lunch time. Y liked my white linen trouser suit.  The financial wizzes whizzed by, smiling slightly at these 2 Asian women, one in a long skirt, both abt 5 feet tall and abt 120 lbs, talking to each other.
The only other people who spoke to me were Grace King (really Kim) who was the stock officer for China, but she was very busy.
So I talked to the young American man who was also interning there, and seemed as lost as we were.

We did have some little troubles at the outset about housing.  The woman named A. seemed to wish to push us to rent in Brooklyn Heights across the river.  She took me/us? there in a taxi, but I did not want to live in a house for just 3 weeks.  Late my 2 NY cousins who worked at UN said it sounded like she was steering us to her aquaintance's house, and it certainly looked like it.
I said I/we did not want to live there, as we were concerned abt security and wished to live in a building with a 24 hour reception desk.  It was then that A turned towards me and asked "How do most people live in Burma?"  I said, "Most people live in huts."
I didn't say both Y and I lived in good neighborhoods.  At Penn we stayed at Nichols House which also had 24 hour security.

Anyway, the Murray Hill hotel suite with the kitchenette they finally arranged for each of us worked very well.  I still have the NY neighborhoods booklet that they gave me, I like Murray Hill and on weekend my son and my friend's son came to visit and we went to the Bronx Zoo.

I took my famous photo of a leopard dozing, all 4 limbs hanging down the sides of an artificial log.  I just loved that pic.

Most mornings I got lost, trying to find my way to Wall St, and the first 2 days I had to take taxis.

I also went into B. Altman's that classy dept store a lot.

I bought some cloisone ear rings and some black underwear, that I thought I would use when my husband came to visit.

A few years ago, I gave it all away to our housekeeper, who said she would give it to her daughter.

The first day at lunchtime in the office, the cleaning lady tried to use me to get some free food to take home for herself.

She brought out these order forms, and said fast, "You want this and this and this, don't you?" and she ticked everything so that a massive amount of food arrived in about 6 boxes all stacked up.  The delivery man has to peer over the boxes.

Of course, I only ate very little, and the rest--I closed the boxes and put them all in a pile in the nearest trash can, out of which I am sure the woman fished them out soon.

So that's how you work Wall St.

On subsequent days, I would just go down to the plaza, sit on the low wall surrounding the global sculpture and eat a small lunch.

I did like the surrounding small streets a great deal, esp Church St with its cemetery.

I tried to look for it the other day, but did not find it.

I think the older building, Woolworths? is the one that survived.

After 3 weeks, Y and I went back to Penn.

A few weeks later, the stock market crashed, and I knew no one would come asking me abt my ideas for Burma.

And the next year, that great watershed event, 1988, happened in Burma--

to date, no stock market still in Burma--maybe it's a dozing leopard too.

Copyright KMKaung
4-18-2015

Reviews of my novella Black Rice--

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Rice-Novella-K-Kaung/product-reviews/0615797520/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

How/where to review my books on Amazon--

If you wish to review my books--i.e. write a review of one of my books, this is the best place to do it.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=K%20Kaung%20K%20M%20Kaung

It does not matter whether you bought or read a print or an e-edition.

Go to the title you wish to review, click on the cover image, and write in/type in or cut and paste in your review at the line which says "Be the first to review this item"  Rank it zero to five out of five stars.

Kindle is a division of Amazon.

And most people now read on Kindle.

Thanks in advance.

You support means much to me.

KMKaung
4-17-2015

Persian sculpture--make or paint a Heech--

http://www.npr.org/2015/04/08/398324849/father-of-modern-iranian-sculpture-gets-first-us-show-in-nearly-40-years

NY Times review of Shweman Thabin at Asia Society

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/13/arts/dance/review-shwe-man-thabin-at-asia-society.html?smid=fb-share

Ludu Daw Ahmar

Great, creative, respected and courageous Burmese writer--

Ludu Daw Ahmar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludu_Daw_Amar

Shweman Tin Maung's theme song

Shweman Tin Maung troupe's theme song, which they sang after their concert 4-10-2015 in NY City--"aung par sae"  (may you) be successful--

whole ensemble came on stage and invited audience to sing with them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLRTsN3FTYI

Buddhist Art of Burma--

with Friend--

saw among other items, a 4-5th century stele from Burma--possibly oldest artifact ever found

and my friend mentioned by name in this NYTS article.

Make sure you take a look at this, as you will not find such good photos of the items in the show anywhere else.

In fact, looked like they only allowed the NYTS and no one else, to take photos.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/arts/design/art-of-devotion.html#

Burmese translation of Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace

http://amitavghosh.com/blog/?m=201203

Second "Burmese" trip to NY

First trip--"Western"

Second trip--"Burmese"

saw old Burmese Buddhas from Bagan period and earlier--earliest a stele which predates Buddhism, brought from Burma especially for this show at the Asia Society.

--took a guided tour with Sylvia Fraser Lu, one of the co-curaters.

--did not get to the photo shoot planned at the Met--

had to cancel as tired, but met the photographer--then missed her again as she was apparently on the stage hobnobbing with the Shweman Thabin troupe--

even though she said she would meet me "right here in the lobby after the show"

My friend had a serious chest infection, so we had to leave as the building was also closing up.

Shweman Thabin show was Excellent.

The dancing, singing, operetta, clowns, acrobatics, costumes--were all excellent.

I do wish they had better mikes.  The narration in English was almost non-existent, while the program was printed in too small a font--and with too many Burmese words for an international non-Burmese audience--and too much technical detail, I think--

still

it is only the 2nd Shweman performance I have seen in my lifetime--and very good--

I forgot to add--

the small excerpt The Temptation of Mara's Three Daughters, the puppet sin taw min tha mee and the drums were the ones I liked best.

The music was also exceptional, the saing waing playing continuously during the 90 minute show except for during the intermission--

They played U Han Pa (U Han Ba's (sic?) famous overture which I heard played at Burma Translation Society in 1950s, then played by U Han Pa himself.


I enjoyed meeting old and new friends and catching up with everyone.

More later

KMKaung
4-12-2015

Photos from Irene Wong and Shweman family--Thank you.

Burmese art conservation in NY

If not a "makeover" at least old Burmese art objects did get a modern medical checkup in NY.
One visit I am told, cost $3000.
http://asiasociety.org/…/video-behind-scenes-look-restoring…

posted by KMKaung
4-12-2015

KIndle links for my books + No Crib for a Bed will be at Politics and Prose, DC--

Politics and Prose will have my stories, No Crib for a Bed and Other Stories, at their Connecticut Av. store in NW DC.

Books will be near the cash register, under my name K.Kaung or Kyi May Kaung.

In addition--

Kindle editions of my books, including latest Home is Where + My Potsdam

http://www.amazon.in/Kindle-Store-K-Kaung/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A1571277031%2Cp_27%3AK%20Kaung
and print edition of this will be out soon also.

I just passed the proof review today.

There are also print editions of everything, available on Amazon (CreateSpace).

Kyi May Kaung
Words Sounds and Images

How you become a great artist--by KMKaung

How you become a great artist (writers are also artists)

You work hard and observe constantly and acutely

you study every day

you practice your art daily

you also need something else

the divine spark

talent

fire in the belly

anger

outrage--

without it you might as well

lie down and die.

Copyright KMKaung
4-6-2015

www.kmkaung.com

Poem--Helluva way to make modern crushed sculpture by KM kaung

Helluva way to make modern crushed sculpture.

1.  Recruit poor young men.
2.  Train them.
3.  Tell them they will die a martyr's death and go straight to heaven, with x number of virgins in attendance.
4.  Promise pensions to their mothers.
5.  Buy box cutters.
6.  Execute the plan.

--you will now have lots of crushed beams and other survivor building components.

We all know the 9/11 photos were sanitized, censored or "edited".

I have had a lot of experience with in- house Burmese editors.

The taxi drivers mentioned strewn body parts.

Among the parts there would be a lot of blood and heads, no??

So what if survivor parts and stories were collected say from The Daisy Cutter?

Drone attacks?

Museum for that?  Those?

I don't know the answers any more.

I model this poem on Rumi's and Faiz Ahmad Faiz's.

I don't know the answers.

You figure it out.

You tell me.

You tell me.

Copyright KMKaung
4-6-2015

Photos Copyright 9/11 Memorial Museum, NY City and KM Kaung--we were allowed to take photos without flash for educational use only.  So pl use for educational use only.  Thanks--KMKaung

Entire 9/11 Commission Report on line

http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf

Just visited 9/11 Memorial Museum in NY City

http://www.newyork.com/attractions/911-memorial-museum/?aff=NY2435dc&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=9/11%20memorial&utm_campaign=SKAG%20-%209/11%20Memorial&utm_content=9/11%20Memorial%20-%20Exact&gclid=CO6WnpqS4MQCFbPm7AodXmMAfA