I'm not the only one. (Actually, I knew that already, but....) Seems like there's a stereotype out there that Asian chicks can't like country music. This I have never understood: if we can be rockers, hip-hoppers, freakin' classical violin prodigies & shit, why not country? Is there something inherently less Asian about country than other genres of music? Hmm? Anyway, check her out! Those are some shirts, no? Read the full article for details of her serious fandom. I got nothing on her for full-on enthusiasm & obsession. Well, at least, not in the country music department. Chinese restaurants are another story, apparently.

FYI, here's a real country singer who's Asian American, & she's good, too. So there.

Thanks to Donna for sending me the article.

Cheers to Claudia Tennyson for organizing a fabulously fun & inspiring Roadside Elixir yesterday at the Headlands! The weather was perfect, the best you could ask for, & a fine old time was had by all, hanging out & making art in the shade of a lovely old tree.

Best Lyric Request of the day came from Paul's friend Josh: four lines from "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain". When he handed his form to me, I got all manic & started frothing at him about the Carla Bozulich cover. After I drew the diagram, he & his pals hung around analyzing all the revealed meanings with me for a while. Music geeks geek out! What could be more fun?

Honorable mention goes to Jerome's mom Nathalie, who challenged me to diagram in French. I actually pulled it off, which is some kinda miracle.

Craziest Request is hands down, no contest, Stephan's "Schoolhouse Rock" listing of all 50 states. What a nut! I told him I was gonna have to mail that to him later.

Then we got to go to the beach afterwards! It doesn't get much better.

It has come to my attention that there is no obvious way for you good folks to buy my work from this website. That's going to take some doing, but for starters, you can see one of my most affordable, best deals if you keep scrolling down past other temptations on the Women's Studio Workshop order page. You can even download some seriously detailed photos of the piece so you can see exactly what you're getting. A mere $65 for real live art! Printed, editioned, signed & numbered by my very own loving hand! C'mon, how can you pass that up?

If you're in the Bay Area this weekend, come to the Headlands Open House on Sunday from noon to 5pm. I'll be diagramming pop lyrics as part of Roadside Elixir, curated by Headlands Affiliate Artist Claudia Tennyson, who will be doing Street Repair. Other Roadside artists: Donna Keiko Ozawa, John Graham, Alison Pebworth, & Jerome Waag (& his mom). Should be a fun time for all, so start thinking about what lyrics you need diagrammed, & we'll see you there!

The Chinese Menu gods are listening... just when I was exclaiming how wrong it was that I had no menus from Texas (considering what a big state it is, & how many people live there), here come some in the mail from Shannon. Thanks, Shannon! She sent menus from Flower Mound, Texas, near Dallas. One of 'em has Cowboy Wonton Soup! You heard me right: Cowboy Wonton Soup, described as "turkey wontons, sliced chicken & fresh spinach all served in a refreshing chicken broth." What is so Cowboy about turkey? Or is it the spinach? Wouldn't you think Cowboy wontons, or Cowboy anything, would be made of... cows? Obviously I'm missing something here. The same restaurant also offers Old Lady Tofu, Pungent Lamb, and Smooth Crabmeat Wontons. Getting awfully poetic down there in Flower Mound....

We should all be so diligent... someone (who apparently isn't Chinese) actually made the effort to learn Chinese characters just so they could read menus in Chinese restaurants. I gotta hand it to this generous soul for putting their extensive info on the web for all the rest of us. There's so much here that I haven't even come close to reading it all. & the photos are cool too!

Wow! Sometime recently while I wasn't paying attention, my homepage quietly passed the 10,000 visitor mark. Now it's over 10,300. I think I owe a lot of that to the illustrious angry asian man (no relation to angry little asian girl, who I notice has now morphed into angry little girls). Anyway, angry asian man is selling T-shirts that say "NOBODY LOVES AN ANGRY ASIAN MAN" which I would so totally wear if I were one. An angry Asian man, that is. I do wear my angry little asian girl T-shirt proudly, though.

Continuing to geek out, I stumbled upon this Making Art of Databases project. Of course I'm thinking of my ever-growing Chinese restaurant database, which currently includes over 3000 restaurants, a mere fraction of what's out there.... Anyway, I haven't gotten to read everything on this cool site yet; I'm gonna have to copy & paste the text because that white text on black background is really hard on the eyes. I'm always complaining about this sort of thing, aren't I? Wiggly hand-held cameras, illegible handwriting, people who can't give decent directions... it's all about communication. I like clear communication. Where it's easy to receive the information. You know? Is that so much to ask?

So. I've been obsessively mapping the Chinese restaurants of Tennessee & am happy to report that Nashville & Memphis each have over 30 Chinese restaurants. Knoxville has over 20 of em. Where I really want to go, though, is to the Number One Chinese Restaurant in Soddy Daisy. Number One is the name of the restaurant. Soddy Daisy is the name of the town. Of course the restaurant is Number One, because it's the only Chinese restaurant there in Soddy Daisy, according to my sources.

Meanwhile there are plenty of other one-Chinese-restaurant towns scattered all over Tennessee. In fact, I'd say you're never more than 30 miles away from a Chinese restaurant, anywhere in the state. Pretty impressive!