First time talking about art. Both a bit nervous in that we don't have the art piece before us, or before you, our listeners. Lot of interesting insights into the aesthetic experience. We both agreed that the physicality of painting is part of the experience, especially when it come Rothko's piece. And being non-representational, it creates space for greater subjectivity and a transcendental experience. This was a fascinating idea.

We are both smitten by Ocean Vuong, his poetry surprises us, his metaphors are both violent and compassionate. His poetry is not just the weaving of a skilled professional, but emerges from a vulnerability of the spirit. We read two poems from his latest book, and just spent time living in them. Read along and join the conversation.

https://placesjournal.org/article/in-newport-i-watch-my-father-lay-his-cheek-to-a-beached-dolphins-wet-back/

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/57586/on-earth-were-briefly-gorgeous

The German-Korean Philosopher, Byung Chul Han, warns against the proliferation of non-things, how as we lose "posession" the lingering care required in having things, because we moving to non-things of the digital world, where accesss & information supercedes ownership & truth, are losing something about what it means to be a human person. It's a fascinating reading. It does seem to explain something I (Samuel) feel everytime I end a zoom meeting: exhaustion and the uneasy emptiness in the finality of pressing "end meeting." Join us for this conversation....

I (Sam) loved it, Joy didn't like it. At the end of the conversation, does Joy change her mind about it? What did you think of it? It isn't your typical stand up. Does it stretch the form? Or does it fail and imitating another form pretending to be comedy? What makes a one-man show a comedy special? And if you confess your secret in public, does it become insincere? Does performance actually create sincerity? And is it different if you experienced it live and if you saw it in your MAX queue?

Joy and I (Samuel Lee) talk about the poem "Study of Two Figures" by Monica Youn. Have you read it? It is unlike most other poems we read. It's such a logical argument, building up incrementally. Yet, there is a poetic assurance and at the end all of these seemingly dry lines come to create a powerful poetic experience. And so many "hot button" subjects are presented to the reader -- race, sex, violence, politics -- and how they are same and not the same. This is also a constant motif, this rhythm of same and different.

Joy is in Oxford to conduct interviews for research. I am stuck in Louisville. We don't start talking about the movie until later, but all the touching base conversation on the stupidity of the pageantry of British Coronation we were going to edit, just left in.

This is our first recording. Hooray! I love engaging in all sorts of topic with my friend, Joy Nam. She is constantly dis/re-orienting me, making me see things in different vantage points.

And we both loved Beef, and wanted to talk about it. So this podcasting is really for ourselves...but let's see where it goes.

This is two non-experts talking together to understand why we like the things we like.