Wait...Where's the book?
One last delay, but it's worth it. Plus: Readings, dogs climbing fences, excerpts, pauses, poems, and rainbows!
PORTLAND, Ore., United States, September, 2020 — "Our contemporary world often feels fraught with hostility, fear, and tragedy. Sometimes I think the shadows darkening our time are akin to those that roiled Mel [Jacoby’s],”
I wrote these words three and a half years ago as I completed my upcoming book, A Danger Shared: A Journalist's Glimpses of a Continent at War, featuring photography by Melville Jacoby and text by me. If you’d like to see some of the photos from the book’s introduction and read an excerpt, I’ve put the introduction on my web site as a free sample.
As I write in the book, I’d first drafted that introduction just after the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, an event obscured by Covid-19 and its aftermath. “What could have been a year of remembrance,” I wrote “was drowned out by the noise of ‘2020,’ a term that became popular shorthand for calamity and left little room for memory.” I’d thought that the book, including that essay, would be published within the following year, but as with everything since that calamitous year it was delayed, delayed, again, and then delayed some more.
Nothing has been easy or straightforward about anything these last four years, and this book is no exception. So, in keeping with our times, yes, you were supposed to have A Danger Shared in your hands on Tuesday if you pre-ordered it in North America, but now it’s set for official release April 8.
However, I can finally confirm that it is indeed a real book! I’ve seen it. I’ve held it. I’ve nonchalantly opened it on a coffee table outside my office at Vida Coworking. I even brought a copy to show my pinball league teammates so they could flip through it between rounds of our absolute nail-biter of a match Sunday night.
If you haven’t already pre-ordered the book, you still can. If you’re in Portland I’d be happy to sign it at one of my events (more info below) or any time; if you’re elsewhere and would like an autographed copy you can order them via my web site (you don’t have to get them signed, but you can get copies of my other books there as well). Depending where you live and when you order it might even arrive early. Indeed some people who pre-ordered it started receiving shipping notifications about it today.
Come to my Launch Party March 30!
You can also get it early directly from me if you come to my launch party this Saturday, March 30, at 5 p.m. at the lovely Rose City Book Pub in Portland. I’ll read a bit from the book, display some photos that appear on its pages (and some that don’t), and may even share some film footage Mel shot in wartime China and audio of some of his radio broadcasts that I recently digitized. There will be food and beverages (alcoholic and non) available for sale. The event is open to all ages (though some of the images will be disturbing for younger guests or those sensitive to depictions of violence and its impact). Even if you don’t purchase a book (but you should!) it promises to be a lovely time and it’s worth coming just to see the space for yourself.
For more details, as well as links to learn more about Rose City Book Pub check out their event page.
Hear me present to the Royal Asiatic Society of Beijing
Can’t make it to Portland this Saturday but can get on a computer at 8 p.m. Beijing Standard Time (5 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, 8 a.m. Eastern, etc.) next Wednesday, April 3? Consider attending a live virtual presentation I’ll be giving to the Royal Asiatic Society, Beijing. It’s free for RASB members and 150 RMB, or about 15 dollars for nonmembers (members of affiliate RAS societies pay 50 RMB). The event promises thoughtful discussions and questions. I am hoping to set up other online events, if not in-person ones, so stay tuned to this newsletter, my social media, or my events page for announcements and details (also, I’d love to attend more events at venues physical and/or electronic, so do get in touch if you have ideas for any)
Dogtopia: Dog on a ladder
I mentioned in the last edition Mel’s (and my) love of dogs. Among the 8mm and 16mm films of his from the 1930s and 1940s I recently digitized were ones he shot from trips home to California, including this segment featuring Mel’s family dog, Elmer, climbing a ladder and doing other tricks, including riding in a wheelbarrow pushed by Mel’s stepfather, Manfred Meyberg.
This Week’s Souvenir: Seeking a Konami Pause
Instead of sharing a broader historical tidbit I’ve come across I thought I’d share a more personal souvenir I’ve uncovered in my work recently: a poem I wrote in December, 2009 that I came across while looking for some other old files:
The Pause Sound
There's something amazing
And instantly familiar
About the sound of pressing pause
on an old game from Konami
I scramble
Looking for a feature like that
In my brain
A break from the chaotic
epic struggle
I keep programming
a fantasy battle
keeping me
from enjoying
my fantasy
If Konami sounds familiar and you’re not into video games, you might still have heard of the “Konami Code,” which provided numerous extra lives or other benefits when entered at the beginning of games published by Japanese developer Konami for the Nintendo Entertainment System and other platforms. You might even still remember “up up down down left right left right b a start”. That code is iconic, to be sure, but I’d bet if you played any Konami games on the NES or SNES, you’ll remember that sound. Have a listen:
Now, who can press my pause button for me?
This week’s scenery
Since A Danger Shared’s release is upon is, I thought I’d share one photo from the book as this week’s scenery. The following image comes from Hanoi, Vietnam (then controlled by France as part of French Indochina), where Mel covered Japan’s pressure on and occupation of France’s colonial possessions in southeast Asia as it tried to cut off supplies to unoccupied China and gain strategic leverage against the United States and Great Britain.
This week’s detours
I’ll probably be spending much of the coming week getting A Danger Shared out the door, but aside from playing old Konami games and perhaps a game of pinball or three, there’s at least one detour I’ll be taking, albeit one still related to the book and Melville Jacoby.
Reading about Billie Lee — Speaking of pre-ordered books shipped out today, Bookshop.org emailed me early this morning to info me that my copy of Searching for Billie, a Journalist's Quest to Understand His Mother's Past Leads Him to Discover a Vanished China by Ian Gill was on its way to me. This book, also published by Blacksmith Books, which published A Danger Shared, tells the story of Gill’s mother, Billie Lee and Gill’s quest to learn more about her and her work. I first learned of the book when Gill appeared on the Hong Kong Heritage podcast from RTHK3. I quickly realized that Lee, Mel, and Annalee traveled in similar circles and likely met one another. Gill and I have since connected and I’m incredibly excited to receive his book and learn more.
See you soon
That’s the news today. More about A Danger Shared as I’m able to provide it. Today I had to skip out on a beach trip with my family during a quick Spring Break getaway. I don’t want to miss any more, so I’m off to search for the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow:
P.S. Don’t forget that you can order signed copies of A Danger Shared from my web site and that you can also order new copies of the book online while still supporting local bookstores via bookshop.org,
P.P.S. If you haven’t already, please subscribe here: