i too feel the need

i too feel the need
This is Part II of Storytime with Sascha: Hobo Cove. In this part, the boys and I get hit with it and have to figure out how to endure the elements. This one is age-restricted too, because of cussing mostly. I might allude to drinking and such? But I figure this one is adult enough […]
This video is Part I of a two-parter about an adventure I had on an island off the coast of southern Thailand. I have it age-restricted because I talk about drugs and cuss a bit. I also allude to fucking and fighting and drinking. I actually toned it down quite a bit, I barely told […]
Seeing death in action has me scrambling …
“This redbone mishmash has me forgetting the slushy confines of winter in the Twins. This morning I almost left my coffee behind. I spoke to the Big Boy cup as if she were a woman who missed me and was so so sad that I had almost abandoned her to slowly grow cold on the […]
The reason we moved back to the US is beginning to unfold, as spring takes hold, and the boys behold the burgeoning beauty of a land accustomed to a deep freeze, speckled with bodies of water long fat skinny round and winding. lakes and trees and sunshine. Minnesota when the sun comes out is a […]
Doing research for this project brought a picture to my mind of me in a field of yellow flowers with a long butterfly net chasing butterflies around and netting them as fast as I could. For each net full that I came away with, only one or two of the butterflies turn out to be […]
What we today call the Chongqing Model and the Guangdong Model are just new names for an ancient struggle. Since the first brick was laid on the Great Wall and the first caravan set out across the desert, this country has been riven by the need to communicate with the outside world and the fear […]
I am a stranger in a strange land. I need connections or I will wither and die. And the connections I need are not just with my native people, or with people similar to me, but with the people who inhabit this strange land. I learned to speak Chinese out of survival instinct and I […]
Tell me how to keep the smile on my face when I start every morning hacking like an old revolutionary until lung butter splatters the toilet bowl like adolescent lust. And clings to it like a first crush. Every morning ya’ll. I quit smoking and I remember someone saying that the first few weeks/months after […]
Tom from Seeing Red in China pointed out some China Quarterly essays and one of them is the inspiration for this essay … Few of China’s problems seem so intractable as the issue of the Chinese soul and what morals are available to guide it in the 21st century. The whole concept of a soul […]
Can it be denied that the US is actively engaging China’s border nations in an attempt to contain and control China? It seems pretty clear to most observers that such was the case years ago – Kissinger commented on the idea of containment back in 2005 – but with the recent moves in Myanmar and […]
Here are some recent pics of my two boys, Stinky and Plumpy. For family and friends 😉 Love, Sascha Yushi Dorian Damian
You can catch me on the Third Ring Road, zipping down the sideline on my Bad. Moduh. Scooduh. I’m on there enough to have found myself a little community, people who all come from different backgrounds but share one thing in common every time they slip onto the Third Ring from some obscure exit choked […]
Today I read Murong Xuecun’s speech given in Oslo. The things he described in his speech are clearly happening all around us and I have rarely, if ever, met a Chinese who will dispute much of what he said. In fact, most of the conversations that end up dealing with the woes of China are […]
It’s hard to watch a good man go down, but that is exactly what I find myself doing everyday now since Ai Wei Wei’s battle with the Chinese government took over the front pages of a lot of the mainstream media and China related blogs. He is a heroic figure and, for Westerners, his return […]
There are basically two camps in the world “battling it out” while the rest of the masses shift and moan and watch it all go down. I use quotation marks because there is often no battle at all. In the Arab countries, there is. In the West, there is not. Two possible representations for the […]
I came across some interesting thoughts the least couple of days. Although I don’t write about current affairs nearly as much as I used to, i still rant about stuff during my lunch break or late at night to bean, who listens politely. I’ve explained a few times already why i don’t write about US […]
So we’re on the eternal search for “the Spot” that will allow me to sip tea and write best sellers while bean makes big big money and the lil ones scamper. Possible locations are (were) 1) Pacific Northwest, specifically Portland and Northern Cali, but also and not limited to Canada or northern Washington. 2) Dali […]
My father in law left last night and I have a feeling it will be a very long time until we see each other again. and thats a damn shame. For a total of six months that man spent every waking hour taking care of this family. Hanging out with Dorian, keeping the books for […]
but i’m surfin instead. The other day my man Charlie got the China Blues, you know, when it dawns on you that all of the things that you heard about China as a kid actually don’t exist anymore and have been replaced by “ignorant drones on autopilot” … happens to all of us here. I […]
Man everywhere i look the oppression is just getting deeper and deeper — at least when I peep the news. there is China doing all it can to keep dissidents either silent or dead or scared out of their wits there is Iran, hailing revolutions one day, torturing them the next there is Libya and […]
Man I found myself teary eyed listening to the Ya Jian Bang sing about Sichuan food. I was thinking about what it would feel like kicking it with my peoples out there around a cheap ass table covered in steaming spicy ass delicious heart warming lip smacking eye glazing down home sichuan style dishes lord […]
I can only remember a few, but my mind swims with them in the hours before i rise and after the alarm has already been silenced. I remember the little Chinese meimei sitting with her grandmother on a bench in Chengdu, on Renmin Road South. I was walking along with Heather from Proximity Butterfly. Heather […]
I’ve been up and down the “horse and tea trade route” a few times. basically the road from Chengdu south to Bangkok, as far as I am concerned. It extends west all the way to Lhasa and beyond and north to Xi’an, but basically the middle half (Yunnan and Sichuan) is where a lot of […]
You know my family always used to make fun of my dad cuz he had like one or two homies. and even those guys he saw once or twice every 1-2 years. He was basically dad and thats pretty much it. All my life I had shitloads of friends. A million people knew my name […]
Dorian turns two weeks in a little less than an hour. The following is an altered message I wrote to a friend and is the post I was trying to write all week but never really had the time or the energy to put it all down. So thanks, Melissa, for getting me to spit […]
安 means peace and is represented by a woman under a roof. I always figured this character was a bit patriarchal … but now that i have a mama and a lil one under my roof … i know what them old sages were talking about. Its the 30th according to the Chinese Lunar calender, […]
Has just opened up a shop selling his CDs (compilations of music he digs) and art. He takes pictures and uses software to make his own impressions. pretty interesting stuff. You can check his site out right here. Here is a picture of Fu that he manipulated into an oil painting-type image: Here is a […]
“And I wish that I were not any partof the fifth generationof men, but had died before it cameor had been born afterward.For here now is the age of iron …when guest is no longer one with hostnor companion to companionwhen your brother is no longer your friendas he was in the old days.”
The army drums cut off human travel,A lone goose sounds on the borderland in autumn.Tonight we start the season of White Dew,The moon is just as bright as in my homeland.My brothers are spread all throughout the land,No home to ask if they are living or dead.The letters we send always go astray,And still the […]
i have been many things in my life, some good, some bad and some ugly. i have seen my brothers be those as well. what i have learned is that only through the fire can the secrets of these ancient bonds be learned and earned. i also believe that time heals all and everything works […]
In the Sanctuary in Oakland with my main men Big Scott and Johnny Frizzle. Today we tore the house up to try and find my passport. We all had different vague recollections of having stowed it away somewhere in the house, but it turns out I left it at a completely different sanctuary up north […]
i am better in group situations, then one on one cuz in one on one I am too eager to revealI like to pass around planets and laugh at jokesor drift away or just sit there and smilei remember a show about a moment taken randomlyand how it could in a moment be divineany second […]
Last Sunday I invited a group of friends over to Paul Rosenberg’s tea temple for a tasting. Paul runs Sacred Teas, a service for those who want to learn more about tea, its properties and how to appreciate the brew for all of the good things it can bring you. In attendance were John and […]
So i will begin with an introduction: hi, this has been inaccessible for me for some time, but now i have hotpost shield so its all good (addendum: not all good). I am still in Chengdu and fly out of here on the 30th to Shanghai and then back to SFO for a while. Now […]
Fortuitous fortuitous this is the word of the day. I spent the last two days meeting my old tea suppliers Bai Ting Ting who provides me with the Honey Dew Tea that I love so much and my man Chen Su Yuan who has tea ware for sale and twin brothers Xiao Song and Da […]
So let me try and explain whats going on here: My main woman Nicole went through several years of servitude and now, finally, the work she has wanted all her life has fallen like manna from the sky. She wants to be a freelance journalist on the move and that’s what is happening to her. […]
You know i don’t ask much of you all, but i need anyone who peeps this blog to go here: Chachie’s Proposal! read my proposal and drop yer words on it. Mad love.
Nicole be twitterin with Questlove these days cuz he is in P-town freezin his ass off … i mean it aint that cold up here but for him … used to the sun and all … Is the Apocalypse nigh? I met a dude in Eugene who saw 7 of the 13? crystal skulls and […]
I wrote about China for Antiwar.com for about 8 years. If you check the columns out, you’ll see I wrote in spurts. There was often a month or more between any one column. It was basically geopolitical stuff but it also served as my forum for the things that inspired, infuriated or interested me about […]
My man Riz. I remember when his goofy big toothed ass showed up in Chengdu and immediately girls were following him around like he was an ice cream truck. i was so jealous i licked his girl’s eyeball. he would console me when i was drunk. he told me it was going to be all […]
I realized something very profound this morning and i am going to try and explain as best i can. it began when i thought about this scene in a movie i watched, in which a man said to another, lets have a moment. they then looked each other in the eyes and “had a moment”. […]
So after a few days in the Twins aka Manyasspolice aka Mipples aka Minneapolis … I have the following to say: 1) It aint even that cold. I hear its a “heat wave” out here right now, but it aint even that cold. its like .. 36 or something. no problem. i might whine for […]
So i been working on this epic novel and such and as the days go on the story gets more fun to mess with. I am going to lay a bit on ya’ll here cuz I figure why not and people be asking me all the time “YO Sasch, wassup with the book dude?” (and […]
this is my brother Mike Jones. this is how he do. bend knee and pay tribute.
I just had a dream of China in 2028 and it was a beautiful vision. I thought of a metaphor: an old man who has shed his skin, thrown away his cane and run a marathon. I felt the pain of shedding skin, the anxiety of throwing away the cane, the suffering of running mile […]
I had a very fine Thanksgiving Holiday with my family in SoCal (southern California) and it is about to end in a few hours. I am headed back to Portland this morning with a small band of adventurers and we all can’t wait to hit up the hot springs throw bills at the pretty ladies […]
Here are some pics and a video from the last week. We had a Halloween Party and went to watch the Bills get beaten by that pill poppin cracker Brett Favre. I picked my brother up from the hospital and drove straight to Claudia’s on Hawthorne to watch the Bills game. You know how we […]
Now that Obama has won, the focus shifts to expectations for dramatic change and improvement across the board and the historic importance of the first black president. For me, both of these lines of thought are foolish and irrelevant. Obama himself can do little to stem the tide of bankruptcies and layoffs that are yet […]
So here is a lil blurb about the music scene in China and below is my man Himmler’s response: the article is pretty accurate. one point I’d add though is that the falling cost of producing music (the digital era – hardware is effectively obsolete at this point) happened ten years ago and hasn’t yielded […]
its transition time and i am getting my room painted, my workshop set up and my routine established. dreams of off the grid cribs become tangible in the MFNW When the full moon watches the sun set over happy valleymt hood floats like a phantom above the treesa rainbow canopy encases the worldand meets the […]
This story is getting passed around the elderly, all-white, businesspeople circle that i have a toe in. I think they may be smug about the fact that Blacks and Hispanics defaulted on many of their loans. Here is another story, by Stanley Kurtz, that basically lays the blame of the economic meltdown on defaulting Blacks […]
My homie Himmler from the 19th Step sent me this long article in Der Spiegel. Its in English. Most people i know will be nodding along with this article, hollerin out like YEAH and YOUKNOWWHATIMSAYIN or whatever you yell out when you catch someone’s vibe. Of particular interest is Part 3, where Spiegel goes into […]
My landlord Nikki V is doing a piece for KBOO Radio about austerity measures people (may or may not have learned from their parents/grandparents) are using to get by in “this nasty economy.” I listen with mild interest, because so far my economy seems unaffected by Wall Street’s 777+ drop this week after the big […]
On the night of the Fall Equinox, in the hills of northern California, beneath an ancient oak tree, surrounded by leaves, herbs and Tribe: I slipped into madness. I unlocked an old familiar riddle and chased the smirking moustached man through the mazes Between. I found countless paths through the madness, countless countless paths that […]
Get yourself a Mission Burrito. Have an Izze soda — my favorite is Sparkling Blueberry. Head to ChaChaCha and drink some Sangria. Put on a gimp suit and head to Castro or Folsom … check out the piers and strippers down on Broadway. Get a tattoo at Goldfields: I did. It says Equality in French. […]
The first thing i noticed was the sun. i got off the plane, gathered my stuff and waited for Sammy B to roll through and pick me up, its was 6pm. The sun in San Francisco was so bright and so strong i had to hide behind a pillar at first. On the drive back […]
Although we may already know that Bush’s policies on pretty much everything have been resounding failures, this in depth analysis of the incompetence and duplicity of the Bush Administration is a good place to look if you want to get angry. Remember: McCain will be the same type of leader, haplessly sure of himself in […]
I have been talkin about getting portland and china together for a long time on this blog, and look what Mayor Adams is up to RIGHT NOW … its pretty exciting. Too bad he isn’t coming to Chengdu …
Here is Eli and my main man Kaffe doin their thang on NPR. Peep it and pass it on. Its the real deal ya’ll!!!!
So I am back in the Du and it feels all right. As soon as I get here and start meshing with my real people again i realize that my work in China will never ever be done. There is so much to write, create, document and promote … I am tied to here forever. […]
So the Games are over and the Western media is tapping into the fear the American nation has for China’s rise. Its all smoke and mirrors, people. America is in the doldrums because the media tells us we are; China is gonna take over the planet because the media tells us they are. The reality […]
Today was quite a day. I watched Cuba whup up on the US in the baseball semifinal and then headed to a spa to wash my stankin sweaty body and watch the US whup up on Argentina in basketball. On the way to the baseball game, i shouted out GO USA! and told jokes in […]
I know China is being held up as the petri dish for this discussion, but i urge all peeps to check their surroundings and see where the petri dish really is. patriotism is the love of the land, the people, the culture, the history nationalism is the love for an illusion provided by the State.
or just post some love on yer blog and send it through the underground. i remember telling some young Chinese friends about the Tank Man in Tiananmen and they all laughed at me and said it was a piece of CIA propaganda. I think for everybody who does not live in China, the image of […]
Indeed, I wrote a lot about how perfect my “Leaving” is, as it comes almost to the day when i arrived 8 years ago. I spoke a lot about how everything seems pre-ordained. Well, now I am beginning to experience what that actually means. These days in Beijing will be a further searing of my […]
Will the damn Games just start already … All day I got BBC hollerin about censorship, human rights and nationalism in one ear and CCTV hollerin about the glory, sacrifice, achievements and bursting pride of the Chinese nation in the other ear. In the middle, i compile reports. I tell Prof. Han to find the […]
That the Chinese are ready to do this. Just Imagine: Your dad grew up smilin if he got some pork in his rice bowl.Your granddad grew up smilin if he got to shoot the invader that raped his village You are smilin cuz pork is in everyone’s bowl. No one dares invade. You got access […]
Last night was great fun. I met up with Zachary Mexico and Li Du of Kunming Paper Tiger fame. I took along a couple of work associates to see if everyone would be able to mesh. It worked out fine. my workmates deal with foreigners all the time, are highly educated and the communication lines […]
… my people will hear me though…
Things is hectic in this piece … for real. after the K’ming bombings the government made a few changes to security that are putting a crimp in everyone’s style. In the Metro lines the only security they have are cadres of fussy old women — the same people who yell at bicycles that cross the […]
Friedmann has been hammering away at this issue for the past few weeks. I think the nation is ready for a Kennedy-style mission to develop clean energy. talk about killing a flock of crows with one stone: A US developed clean energy alternative to oil would revamp the economy, create jobs, remove the need to […]
My man Mike the B. and some info on the Freddie Mac thing, which i said was sinister a few days ago …
Check out my no-fun dork shoes: China’s “top-down” approach to security in the Olympics guarantees that there will be very little mirthful exchanges between the people (in public places at least) and the Games here will be … well … all business. 2am curfew. anti-drunken partying behavior by the coppers. random security checks. jumpy cops […]
I am finally in Beijing. After several months of talking about it and changes to the plan on a weekly basis, I am now officially part of the whole “one world one dream” experience in Beijing. Yesterday was a beautiful day. The sun shone all day, the sky was blue and white lazy clouds hung […]
It is so hot and humid in Chengdu right now that my brain is bathing in its own liquid, humming strange tunes to itself and sending me images of massive artillery guns firing into the distance. Spengler is a columnist for Asia Times who has derided the Europeans for lacking the courage to face the […]
Today is Independence Day, and I suppose it is a good a chance as any to re-hash all of the things that i feel and believe about America. I am so eager to head back to the States. I miss so much about the place. But the things I miss are absent from the public […]
My MAN Rindy dropped it on this piece right here. I urge everybody to read it and pass it around. Send it to Obama’s braintrust. He is already beginning to betray us, everybody: Isreal vs. Iran, public financing, ethanol … not complete sell out yet, but its early yet. Obama needs to know that we […]
Well i’ll be damned. After all this time, China has decided(?) to let blogger do its thing. So i am visible in China. This is a good thing. I am in shanghai now and chillin with my man Ferchak. I love his house. And his style too. A true gentleman scoundrel of the most elegant […]
ya’ll don’t even know. I went to Hanyuan the other day and just got back in the Du. I was planning on staying a month there, but things didn’t work out that way. On the way to Hanyuan I got a call from my man Philly in Beijing and he said: “yo, that security job […]
I can’t read my blog right now, but that might end. It has been a common occurrence since I started this thing. Sometimes my proxy works, sometime it dont. So here is a bit of an update on the “they tearin down my house” saga: My neighbors and I had a powwow today and learned […]
I was brought into a new community recently, Matador Travel Community and i must say i really dig it. i usually hate forums and communities because they demand much and they spring up like mosquitos in the night. Butthis one is filled with people like me so I am down. I put two stories up […]
This is my house — the farm. About 10km southeast of Chengdu in Three Gods Flower Village, where farmers grow roses and tulips and offer up their homes as teahouses for the semi-affluent of the city. There are some quiet nooks here off the teahouse path where one can chill. This is Tenz, my half-Tibetan […]
Tomorrow is chill out time with my kitties. Ima ride my bike around and beat Tenzin in chess. mad love
Well Chengdu is basically back to normal. My friend Charlie’s harrowing experience is all over the web now — here is the AP story, which also has the video. You can check out the text here. We’ll be heading up north tomorrow in a caravan filled with goodies. It will probably only be a daytrip […]
Well the tremors have picked up now and rumors are rife about another large earthquake. But rumors have been flying all day about no water, polluted water, airport open then closed and so on. its safe out in my little farmhouse and I got a crew out there and some kitties to look after. Charlie’s […]
On the day of the earthquake in Sichuan Province, Charlie, Ramone and John met at the Shamrock Bar and Grill in Chengdu at 7am and left on motorbikes for a tour of Qing Cheng Mountain. Qing Cheng mountain is one of the most famous Daoist sites in China, covered in temples, pagodas and tea houses. […]
Its time to concede Hillary. I like to believe that the universe works according to my whim. My decision to stay here in China until after the Olympics and then boogie to Portland in September seems to be in line with all that is transpiring in the world. In September, I will see if it […]
I have tried to emphasize the need for us to turn back to home and see what we can do there instead of sticking our under-educated noses into everyone else’s business. This column here by Thomas Friedman lays down what we already feel.
just got off the horn with a one of my tribe’s elders (hahaha) and it feels damn good. crazy shit is in the mix … seems like we might all be on the west coast of the USA at some point. or Colombia. or maybe we’ll have a powwow in South Africa with the Peer […]
my people are busy lamenting, yet also enjoying, the brainwashing others have endured. it feels good to consider oneself free and to have a target to point at, proof of your powerful mind, resistant to the tendrils of subtle passivity. it is the prisoner in D block laughing at the man in the hole. brainwashing […]
Yet another of the three peeps peepin this blog, who refuses to answer me in this blog. Of course, copy and paste is my faithful slave. “re: your words: “i was talking with some homies yesterday about what the most fantastic future imaginable would be. I said it would be the actual fruition of a […]
well it seems the media blockade is working or I just have not been keeping my ears open. Here a response to my last blog from Big Daddy Villar: “I’m in a bit of a rush and really only had time to look at about two paragraphs of your blog. But from what I’ve read […]
so yo Obama hit back with a speech that was exactly what I had been thinking and arguing in a few forums and blogs. The NYT seems to be helping out as much as possible. we shall see. i was talking with some homies yesterday about what the most fantastic future imaginable would be. I […]
Today i spent the whole day with my man Liu Yuan running from one massive development project to another, extolling the virtues of Chengdu’s real estate situation. I was interviewed a few times for the TV and all the girls in the house were giggling. the older women too. they would roll up on me […]
I went to the restaurant Talk the other night, on recommendation from resident Baller Dave B. I borrowed some clothes from hakim because mine were wrinkly, as I had just returned from the road and hadn’t got to cleaning clothes yet. I looked spiffy in a cashmere jacket and a pimp French shirt. I roll […]
well well well in the Du got my house almost clear of cat shit. garbage is piling up but i have a plan. the toilet is plugged but today i will get a plunger. its getting warmer and the birds are chattering madly. another two months and the good tea is plentiful and flowers will […]
I have been wrestling with being called a racist by people who read my occasional column on antiwar.com — i admit that i do have some racist-ass thoughts about China and Chinese. But at the same time i love these fuckers. what can ya do. anyway i am back in the dirty du, my home […]
This one is for my man Flesh if he ever reads this. I have been in China for eight years. Eight, written as we write it, is formed of two circles, or a Moebius Continuum .. Infinity. As the Chinese write it .. it looks like nothing of the sort. But eight is auspicious. When […]
It is now the second day of Chinese New Year here in Dali and the fireworks have subsided somewhat. On the sixth, we gathered at the bad monkey and blew stuff up all evening. There are some M80 types that we would throw into the small sewage-rivers that flow along the stone paths through Dali […]
it always hard for me to escape the monkey in this town. cuz i don’t try hard. the other night we were dancin to irish music, fully lickered up throwin each other and girls all around the bar — twirlin people and flippin each other and such. i received a massive bruise on my thigh, […]
maybe its just because i stood next to him once at paisley park .. maybe its cuz i rocked it so many times at his club first ave .. maybe its just cuz he’s a pimp of the highest most spectacular order. even that 1990s shit diamonds and pearls was cool. i got this dvd […]
We are having our customary American Coffees at Salvador’s this morning. Sal’s is one of the finer cafes i have ever experienced in China. The food is great, the prices are low, the place is owned by a few gringos from kansas and colorado and run by an army of western yunnan munchkins, under the […]
“The devil came down to Clifden, lookin for a soul to steal, he was getting kinda low and don’t ya know he was willing to make a deal …” Johnny went through Clifden one day and listened to the Irishmen play, they hit their fiddles with a mighty cry and sang to the darkening sky. […]
well i have tried to put pics up here for days now. i went through picasa and checked out what the deal is — heard that sideways pics is a problem that many of us have. but picasa won’t load the damn pics up so i am just gonna have text now. i am in […]
don’ worry i will add pics in a bit. i arrived from amsterdam sunday afternoon and went to my man tenzin’s house and eased back with him and his woman aliya. i booked a flight the next day for jiu zhai gou, as there was an ecotourism forum going on and my friend andrew is […]
yeah i be trippin. but here with my bro in adam its all good. we toured the city and its beautiful, even the ancient hos flicking their thick swollen tongues at us from behind clean windows. red halos. the morrocans, adjusting their sneer to our knowing gaze. the dutch, happy to chat and interested. last […]
In four hours, my plane leaves for Amsterdam. actually six hours, but i have an hour long train ride ahead of me. i just got off the phone with a woman. i’m tellin ya. if anything can spin yer dome around, its a woman. i am not sure if she is humoring me or subtly […]
Every morning i enjoy myself ritually with the bread slicer. I love the buzz and smell of good bread being prepared for my rumblin gullet. then i sift through the fridge. Lord, Bless my Mother with Peace of Mind and a Calm Heart! She maintains a fine kitchen. Teewurst, Leberwurst, Salami, Kaes’ and so on. […]