What’s on the menu?

Welcome to my story eatery for anyone who is hungry. With irreverence and adoration, I make old Asian practices appetizing - sometimes with dashes and dollops of pop culture, Star Trek, Star Wars, and other nerdery. Everything near and dear to my heart that truly matters yet could never quite make it to the center of my day… but will now. I write for anyone just as moved by Marvel movies as they are by meditation and hope to share lessons from dance, martial arts, and ritual practices that reconnect us to land, body, and spirit.

I spent 30+ years immersed in community and ritual at the Berkeley Thai Buddhist Temple. I have also trained with Grandmaster Wong Wai Yi in Chen Taijiquan martial arts. Big influences are sci-fi and fantasy blockbusters, Chinese martial artists memoirs, Thai poetics, Zen teacher and strategist Norma Wong, and writer/dramaturg Sharon Bridgforth.

For free subscribers, you will receive updates and announcements on my happenings. New projects, collaborations, milestones, teasers of writings behind the paywall - what is typical when you subscribe to a newsletter.

For paid subscribers, you will receive writings. Vignettes and personal essays. These will be crafted stories in “presentable” stages of development, albeit not quite cooked to perfection. This collection will become the makings of future books. A window into the wisdom of traditional temple arts. Pieces from the cutting room floor. My chronicle of chasing a dream as I forge my way as a modern day storyteller. A reality show you read. Random and constructed inspirations and insights I find along the way that keep me fed.

I have no delusions about the calibre of my writing. I am no more Pulitzer than my cooking is Michelin. We are hungry for stories - akin to eating that comfort dish made by an auntie or that three-star, hole-in-the-wall restaurant. How many delicious stories remain untold waiting to be discovered? A book deal. A following. A big break. Waiting in the wings. No more. Food is something we readily enjoy commercially without credentials. The dispersal of art and creativity is not only reserved for prodigies and bestsellers. Here I am, pantry full of lessons passed down by my elders and teachers, prepared in my own style and flavor, with an invitation to eat.

Stories are food. Stir Fry Stories.

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Vignettes and personal essays of a storyteller, nerd, and culture bearer.