Angelica's A-POP Blog

1. Railroad Standard Time
   1. P. 1
      1. She brought me in here to the …was a paradise for conspiracy, …
         1. I’ve noticed this a lot growing up and in movies. Coming to the kitchen table as a place of comfort for hard or difficult topics.
   2. P. 2
      1. “Your grandfather collected railroad…gives it to you now,” she said.
         1. My family likes to pass down heirlooms, but not tell us the origins behind them. For example, I have a ring from my grandmother that was given to me with no history behind it other than it was hers.
   3. P. 6
      1. The voice of the tires hums a shrill rubber…pelvic bones, the roots of my teeth.
         1. Reminds me of my first time riding an ATV and crashing.
   4. P. 6 – 7
      1. She stood up singing, one hand cupped…pounded the tune out with her palms.
         1. My mind blended a version of this description and the sing-a-long version of one of the cows from Home on the Range and I can’t stop laughing and being disgusted at the same time.
2. The Eat and Run Midnight People
   1. P. 9
      1. The giant moonhunter awoke each…children. Ride with me, Grandfather.
         1. This whole piece was writing here is both exciting to read and terrifying if you think of him as a ghost or a demon.
   2. P. 11
      1. We eat toejam, bugs, leaves, seeds…food to make up enough to eat.
         1. I remember a time when my family was so poor that I made to go through our pantry and find old containers of meat stews or dry mixes to make something to eat that was at least five years old.
            
   3. P. 13
      1. Inside her twat was like I was…right of way, going home, Grandfather.
         1. Guess this is where the red in the name Sex on the Beach comes from…
            
   4. P. 18
      1. An hour later and he’s still ticking…apart. Like a dam breaking: blood!
         1. It’s since a shame that in order to try and save him, they ended up killing him in the process.
            
3. The Chinatown Kid
   1. P. 25
      1. Did she dream in Chinese?
         1. I wonder if people who were raised in multilingual homes pick which language they dream in or if they hear both.
   2. P. 28
      1. He told Pete and Maria that his wife had a great…knew what they weren’t talking about.
         1. It’s terrible when your spouse knows that you’re cheating on them, but even worse when they then lie to themselves about what you’re doing.
   3. P. 32
      1. Dressing the girl had been an act of revenge; he…beautiful that would mindlessly be eaten alive.
         1. No one knows what will happen to their children, they can only prepare them.
   4. P. 33
      1. How do you make a child care about leaving you…when you leave? Better to not hear her shriek.
         1. Perhaps the makers of Bao have read some Frank Chin.
4. The Only Real Day
   1. P. 41
      1. “Every morning, I woke up with my father and my…was leaving my father and mother, and I did. I left.
         1. An odd morning routine, but at least a bonding experience.
   2. P. 43
      1. “The Jews don’t like anybody,” Huie said. “They…of the Orient, for fuckin out loud? What a life!”
         1. One of my classmates that traveled to Japan with me is Jewish and when the men he was drinking with found out, they started calling him a “Jew bastard.” Then half ran, half fell, chased him out the Izakaya he was in.
   3. P. 47
      1. “His mother, my boss, is one of these new-fashioned…making her son well, but she knows…”
         1. It can be really hard for some people to adjust to their new life and surroundings. For now at least, or just in public, it’s better to blend in.
   4. P. 49
      1. “And my brother told Jimmy that all his papers had been…no one thought about papers, and some not even of their gold.”
         1. One of the most common questions someone can ask you is, “you could only save one thing in a fire, what would it be?” Most people pick possessions, family members, heirlooms, but who would choose to save their only way to prove their identity?
5. Yes, Young Daddy
   1. P. 79
      1. You see, I don’t want to pay $22.52 for the ring…I can wear it through my junior and senior years.
         1. I’ve never understood why someone would want a class ring. High school is an important part of someone’s life, sure, but it’s not the time of your life that is the most important. It’s the end of your childhood, the start of adulthood, but wouldn’t a college class ring mean more to you than one from a high school? It takes more work to earn it after all.
   2. P. 80
      1. I think it’s time for you to start dating. I know you…the kind of guy my mother thinks I am.
         1. I’ve always heard of family members telling you to stay in school and not date or to have a secret lover that you hide from everyone. This is a first for me of hearing a family member encourage dating.
   3. P. 84
      1. Dirigible blushed, then turned his head to stifle a laugh. He had never seen his cousin with breasts before.
         1. My aunt acted the same way the first she saw my sister and I in two years. “Boobs! Girls with boobs!”
   4. P. 86
      1. “You don’t want me to?” “Nope…” “You think I’m…no more. Just stay home! All the time!”
         1. Given Lena’s attitude and the way that she writes to her family members, I wouldn’t want her going out anywhere either. Clearly, she has some issues with bounders and understanding what is appropriate.
6. “Give the Enemy Sweet Sissies and Women to Infatuate Him, and Jades and Silks to Blind Him with Greed”
   1. P. 94
      1. “I won’t stay here just because of you. Good old Mrs. Hasman…of my old grade school teacher,” Dirigible said.
   2. P. 96
      1. “Goo’leven-ing elley bolly, lady anner gennumas, anna walcome…U-S-A. Anna Goong Hai Fat Choy!”
         1. I had to read this twice in my head to make sure I understood everything. Reading it out loud just made it worse.
   3. P. 99-100
      1. “I’m thinking her up. I’ll show you a picture of her later…just me who knows what she’s missing,” Mrs. Hasman said.
         1. I’m not too sure which part of this story is more disturbing, Dirigible asking to grope Mrs. Hasman as a replacement, or how okay she is with being replaced. As if she wants to touched more than anything.
   4. P. 105
      1. “Do you, when a girl bends over, if she’s wearing a…they expect if I’m going to die before I turn eighteen?”
         1. What’s the point of her asking this question? If he does, does that make him a pervert and if he doesn’t does that mean that he’s respectful or not that attracted to women? A better question would be to ask him what he finds the most attractive about a woman so she kinds if he likes women for their minds and not just their bodies.
7. A Chinese Lady Dies
   1. P. 110
      1. …a mysterious paralysis echoing the paralysis of…his Hollywood career as the Chinaman who dies.
         1.  “Making it big,” and making something isn’t the same and in this case, is destroying.
   2. P. 112
      1. “Good thing for you I should be black and blue all over to make you happy. I suppose when you don’t hit me, you’re in a bad mood, huh?”
         1.  Having someone hit you so you don’t beat others is no way to live. It’s a death sentence, not a life.
   3. P. 118
      1. “Are you calling me a jinx?” Dirigible thrilled…hers’. I’ll leave if you’re afraid of me, Ma…”
         1. Bad things in life happen all the time and no single person can be of the blame of that. Bad timing or not, that’s too much pain to put on a single person. 
   4. P. 122
      1. “Waiting for you to die?” Yes, he had. Then he…mean? Now if I really were somebody…”
         1. My sister is the same way with our mother. Asking for death, but wanting to talk with and spend time with them. A back and forth between riddance and desire.
8. The Sons of Chan
   1. P. 131
      1. When I touch bare metal with my free hand or foot…Hood of the Old West, the Cisco Kid.
         1. I’ve gotten shocked by my electric blanket in the past and the feel is anything far from this description that he gives. 
   2. P. 133
      1. I’d become a father and a divorce had a daughter by an elderly ex-nun and returned to California to play yellow bit parts.
         1. I wonder if it’s the same nun from The Eat and Run Midnight People…
   3. P. 135
      1. In the twenties when Charlie Chan came into being, the…males, guarantee an end to Chinese population.
         1. I wondered if this is the time and origin of “all Asians have a small dick,” and saying that, “Chinese people can’t drive.”
   4. P. 139
      1. Is it true that Chinese restaurants all over America have…trying to be magicians of white magic.
         1. I’ve heard of Latin communities closing their businesses early on Wednesday nights for church, but not Chinese. Maybe I haven’t been to enough Chinese restaurants to see them close on Wednesday yet, or maybe this was a change that the communities made in order to adapt.

~ by Angelica Perez on April 29, 2019 . Tagged: Assignment, Talking Points