Kevin Kasch

High school dropout, test-out, actually, now finished with my studies at Beida / Peking University / PKU ...

California State University - San Francisco State University, Attended 1960 - 1964, Class of 1959, Postdoctoral, Futurology

SOMNONAUT; jobs around water; llife-learner

Copwatch, PKU News, Lighthouse Foundation for the Blind, Canada, that rehab place that tried to reprogram me there on Valencia street before 826 moved in next door, Sidewalk Astronomers, ACLU

MSN Messenger, Disintermediation, Chinese, water, trespassing, pugilism, social magic, ping pong, a regimen of controlled starvation and sleep-dep, cell repair, being upside down, badminton, bicycling, new ideas across all disciplines, rewiring, making friends, thinking about how best to raise any eventual child(ren) I might have, photography, history, revolution, humor, collecting various media, paring down my worldly possessions (these last two would seem to be in conflict with one another), connections, American breakfast, travel, petanque, philanthropy, philogyny, play-hunting the wild cats who live behind my office, bonding with the wild puppy who wanders the halls of my apartment building at night (not kidding, it is *so* cute and mysterious), tea, fun, fun, fun -- but also stuff other than fun, sometimes stuff that is really not fun, like suffering (and figuring out how to aviod it)

To Serve Man, Black Lizard crime fiction novels, Kurt Vonnegut, David Sedaris, John Collier's Fancies and Goodnights, Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son, Edward Gorey's Gorey Games, Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire, Harry Kressing's The Cook, Pete Dexter's Deadwood, Milan Kundera's Laughable Loves, Roman Polanski's autobio, Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, John Barth's End of the Road, John Updike's Harry Angstrom: A Life (the collected Rabbit series), Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of The World, Kobo Abe's Kangaroo Notebook, The Harvard Lampoon's Mediagate, Eddie Campbell's Deadface, Grant Morrison's whole patchwork oeuvre, as well as everything Roald Dahl ever wrote -- for adults or children, Calvin and fucking Hobbes, Dr.Slump / IQ BoShi, Yip Po-Ching and Don Rimmington's Chinese instructional books, viceland.com, harpers.org, NY Times Magazine, The Economist, various Beijing mags, BBC radio comedies

Last Frankenstein, Infernal Affairs, Rules of Attraction, 24 Hour Party People, Intacto, True Romance, Lupin III Castle of Cagliostrio, Kinsey, this old horror/comedy movie I watched with a little girl who was for some reason awake at 3am here in Beijing (it was on a TV in a convenience store that her mom operates, and it had this HK Laurel and Hardy -type duo trying to outrun a mob of Chinese zombies until dawn... they at some point steal a paper car that the undead are driving around chasing them in, which the zombies got because their living relatives burned a little paper version, which gave them use of a big paper version in heaven or hell or wherever they are... but what the fuck is the name of this movie, no one knows it... I have a short video of it)... also, Sin City was surprisingly good, as was Jarhead, and I like the Cultural Revolution scene in The Last Emperor.

2manyDJs, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Beatles, Mikey Dread, Chet Baker, TMBG, Donovan, Sly Stone et al, VU, Kinks, Wang Fei, Delgados, Marc Collin, Blonde Redhead, Rufus Harley, Belle & Sebastian, Mates of State, The Clash, Gorillaz, Stranglers, Eugene McDaniels, Cymande, Dr. Dre-Del, Selecter, Buck 65, The Cure, Gary Byrd's Every Brother Aint a Bro, NY Citizens' Shut Up and Listen, Snakefinger's Man in the Dark Sedan, James Royal's House of Jack, Roy Porter's Wavering, Momus' 7th Wife of Henry VIII, Merit Hemmingson's Visa Fran Medelpad, Black Sabbath's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Doris' Beatmaker, Prokofiev's The Cat (from Peter and the Wolf), OSTs to Repo Man, Clockwork Orange, Downtown 81, Putney Swope, Midnight Cowboy, Wild Style, In the Mood for Love, More, and Zabriskie Point; arrangements by Charles Stepney, and that version of Shaft by Sammy Davis Jr. (which has an Isaac Hayes arrangement).

"It's a cookbook!"; guo nian programming on CCTV, especially the part with the 21 deaf-mute pretty ladies moving their hands around in perfect unison and blowing my mind and then later turning up on the campus of Beida to hang out with me on several pleasant afternoons past, Mr. Show w/ Chinese subtitles (DVD set in my possession). I ran into the cast of Diff'rent Strokes one time at a video game arcade when I was a kid. It was that red-haired Sam character's itinerant b-day party, they were doing the town in a limousine, the spoiled little fucks. Also Natl Geographic Explorer episode "Lotan Baba, The Rolling Saint". Oh and the Nova episode entitled "Secrets of the Wild Child" -- it made me cry in a class when I first saw it.

According to the latest findings, identity is, at its essence, nothing more than a story we tell ourselves. Mine involves action movie tropes, bitter disappointment, and ultimate redemption -- kind of like *yours*, no doubt.

Once when my friend Nato was going through a phase meeting gals through the SF Weekly Personals (this was a long time ago), & I had just pledged 2 never pay 4 a drink again (without actually swearing off alcohol), I went with him 2 an event in which there was free (SF Microbrewery) beer 4 anyone who placed a personals ad at the special SF Weekly table. I think I still remember the ad I placed. It was exactly the maximum 40 words, and it ran several weeks later. I never followed it up with the required recording of a phone greeting, etc, so I have no idea how it went over. It went a little something like this:

"Former Child Star
Fun and refined SWM, 21, seeks charming Joan-of-Arc-type for adventure, idea exchange, heavy petting, and to bring me luck at the races. You are 18-25, adored by everyone you've ever met, and live in the Bay Area. No Puritans."

So I'm still kinda looking for that, except now older is okay, I'm flexible on the Joan of Arc thing, idiots not liking you is