Uneasy Rider

To be in traffic in Hanoi is to be a liquid — a drop of water in an endless current, sluicing from one intersection to the next, your position and shape ever changing depending on the surroundings, like beads of humidity on the inside of a windscreen. There’s something almost balletic about it, if you can imagine one on a stage that is too small and crammed with far too many dancers. To the uncharitable it is a chaotic mess, a cacophony of idle motors, abrupt braking and endless, endlessbeeping. But to a willing participant it can be seen as something else: a surprisingly coordinated and cooperative act of organic movement, capable of moments of selflessness, patience, and a strange, haphazard beauty.

An essay I wrote about traffic in Hanoi and its potential to be viewed as a microcosm of Vietnamese society as a whole is now up at The Bygone Bureau.

You can read the rest of the essay here: http://bygonebureau.com/2013/03/27/uneasy-rider/

Offsides

It quickly became apparent that If I wanted a quick way to engage with unwilling teens sent to my poorly-ventilated classroom by eager parents, or to defuse stares sent my way due to being the only white guy in the local bia hoi, it would help to know a little about European football leagues, or at least pretend to. The simple fact of being Caucasian seemed to confer upon me the status of assumed expert, and it was gratifying for my ego to play along, especially when the locals took me for an idiot most of the rest of the time. When talking about football, otherwise shy students and heretofore strangers were transformed into eloquent students of the game, easily outshining my knowledge while expounding on the virtues of any number of EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga or Serie A players and teams.

It didn’t matter that my ‘favourite’ team was chosen as a child because I liked the deep blue of their playing strip; many of the people I spoke with had chosen their teams for similarly arbitrary reasons. More importantly, we had something to talk about in our improvised, mediated language, one full of phrases cribbed from sportscasters and those vague physical gestures that somehow manage to express agreement and enthusiasm, no matter where you are.

Offsides – Kill Screen

My essay about football fandom and gaming culture in Ha Noi is now live at Kill Screen. Super excited to be writing for them.

Schwarzfahren

An essay I wrote about the questionable ethics of dodging the fare on Berlin’s public transport system has been published at The Billfold.

Schwarzfahren (Or: Exploits in fare evasion while living in Berlin)

Gig review: Purity Ring and Doldrums @ Berghain

I reviewed the Purity Ring/Doldrums show at Berghain for Data Transmission, which you can read here.

Gig reviews for Data Transmission

I’ve started writing gig reviews for Data Transmission, which I’ll keep a record of here. The first is for what was an amazing Death Grips show at Festsaal Kreuzberg on November 1st.

Death Grips, Festsaal Kreuzberg

Spectating Change – Hang Day Stadium

[Originally published in The Word, July 2011]

Spectating Change – Hang Day Stadium

Commens Interview

[Originally published in East and West Traveller, August 2011]

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