so i’ve got a title – thanks to my buddy Meron Langsner via Facebook. put up a little call for nom de plums or whatnot and i gotta buncha responses. The Academic Front just felt right. you know? gave me that warm and fuzzy, right where it counts. no, not that place…the other one. and next TUE, June 8th, we’ve got our shoot with Daniel Wong @ El Camino College. Final Exams.
they can be tough, i know.
remember once, back when i was youngin’, attending Loyola, and i was arrested. wasn’t charged, but i was arrested nevertheless.
and it was the day of my final.
and it’s 2am.
and i’m sitting in a cell with some homeless fella who stinks of fish.
and he’s squating on a communal toilet; smiling, toothless, hard to tell if he wants to befriend me or befriend me.
jailer comes by. says, “mandia – you wanna make bail?”
i take that in. real slow. look around – all these gangbanger-types in adjacent cells. drunks, puking. addicts, withdrawing – crying like children.
and then i’m moved to a solitary cell. the bars are closed. CLANG!
it echoes a little. i remember the echo.
couple hours later I’m writing about the intricicies of emily dickinson’s lesbianism and the Romantics. kids in class kept tweaking their noses…musta been the fish.
but hey, on another note, Daniel was kind enough to share a picture of his unit upon arrival to CONUS…after the protestors.
Daniel Wong's Official Welcome Home, Fort Campbell
