Alanna Lin a.k.a. “Mindy Chiu” is a singer/songwriter, blogger, and performance artist who received her MFA in Creative Writing from the Critical Studies Department at CalArts in 2003. She has performed improvised and original works as herself and as her alter-ego "Mindy Chiu" at Beyond Baroque, Pehrspace, and Highways Performance Center and on the Web.
In 201*, she will be appearing as the Version Mary 10.1.7, promoting earthquake preparedness and public safety in Los Angeles.
Version Mary 10.1.7
Prepare The Ones You Love
Letter to the Los Angeleans
TO BE SENT ELECTRONICALLY
Hi Gentlemen of Los Angeles,
I submit to you this series of poems.
1 Overture
Dear men,
It's not everyday
That emails come into
View
That address you
As exactly who you are
Gentlemen
Of some higher invisible
Standard
I summon your wisdom
To my cause
You are:
City Engineer, Historic Preservation Expert,
Construction Litigation Lawyer and Esquire
I am but
A transplant
To this country of Los Angeles
From the suburbs
Next to the cornfields of OHIO
That our paths should cross at all
Is light enough for me,
But not enough.
Some time ago
Misfortune befell me
And like Dorothy from the other Oz
I found myself swept up
And transplanted here
Where much that glitters
Is gold
Stars on the boulevard,
The sun,
Collarbone jewels--
I've seen with my own eyes
A Gold Line rise
To the EAST
And dreams
So many dreams
Amidst unreinforced brick
My recent history
Has been turbulent
Trials
Unrelenting
And as
The foundations of my being have trembled
So has my mind
To consider
The power of that metaphor
Removed from metaphor
For the last year
I have dreamt of earthquakes
And damages beyond reckoning
Common faults and faultlines
That make us (native and immigrant)
One people
The citizens of Loz Angeles
Gentlemen
Prophecy
Has no place
To rest its weary head
But a geological pendulum
Swings towards the sleeping
Version Mary Intro | Audio Recording
Version Mary Intro | Audio Recording
2 Honda Civic Duty
Dream or a command?
Take thee
An old
1989 Civic hatchback
And paint it gold
Run it close to the ground
So that it is
Gold running next
To gold
Running
Running
Fill it with first aid,
Granola bars and a real
Beauty
Coach her to wait on
Destruction
As Destruction waits
For
The Golden State
How golden if fractured?
Golden only
If we do for each other
As we would for our mothers
(but mine was bitch! nevermind / continue)
A silent
Shining fleet
Driven by volunteers
Floating in traffic
Neighbor to neighbors
One man's supply for
Another man's need
Our ration against a panic that bleeds
Hail yee
Preemptive Strike:
The Gold Standard
The Golden Rule
Mobile Gold
The Honda Civic Duty™
Serving Southern California
And Vicinity
3 Go Metro
Weary on the bus
The working poor
Earn their way through life
Dreams for later
The bus driver takes a timed route
Through the rain
This bar on wheels
Offers no drinks
TVs mounted inside air loan commercials
Spanish ads for realtors
The crackle of food in bags
The company of backpacks
Cut up side panels
Dirty windows
But did you hear?
Metro wants paramedics behind the wheel
Will train transport staff to respond
As relief
Workers
Assigned to a moving radius
No more wasted space under seats
First aid and supplies
Distributed and constant
As the transit schedule
Relief, ready.
Go Metro!
Go!
Go Metro Go | Audio Recording
3. That Guy From LAUSD Knows Dates
I don't expect him to say what he says
I'm talking IDEAS
Honda Civic Duty Ha ha
For the Big One Ha ha
But he says
that's good--
now
don't
you
want
to
know
when?
That Guy At LAUSD Knows Dates | Audio Recording
5. A View from 7th Street Bridge
LA is an ocean disguised as a highway
Unbearable traffic--just its
Wealth
Fishes
Armored by metal so tender / delicious
And able to listen to music!
Turn your windshields to me
Light and Shine
Metal fish down the 101
Come
Receive your praise
Your world is so beautiful
And all the people in it are so beautiful
Today, today makes my heart sing
I think I see your love in everything
Sun and wind are my best friends
If this day could never end
da da da
But seismicity is a geological
Presupposition indifferent
To song
To the prophet
Not peace but the sword
Not peace but the word
Not peace but free parking
Earthquake kits to be sold by the City of Los Angeles
For the City of Los Angeles
Take that, deficit.
October 17th is the day
Everyone matters
The man from LAUSD said to me
Coughing
Everyone matters.
Speak mind
When you have been blown
Introduction:
My name is Mindy Chiu.
I have been cast as
Version Mary 10.1.7
Lines:
Prepare
The Ones
You Love
[ insert video ]
6. Save The Date
Over the freeway
The overpass
Is about to communicate
Put on your wings!
Put on the lights!
While some people have families
This incarnation
Is running a PR firm
The plot
IPR
Immaculate Public Relations
PDR
Preemptively Distributed Relief
DTS
Disaster In A Tight Sock
The Tight Fabrique
Now now
Go for it
You f-cking plates
17 Interns
Flex on pedal
Bait and turn
Your audience is seated
In their vehicles
The 5 p.m. show
Starts at 5:37 p.m.
Traffic on the 110 S
Merging to the 10 E
The theater is full
7th Street Bridge
Ready?
Line up!
On your mark!
Raise letter cards!
P R E P A R E
Flip
THE ONES
Flip
YOU LOVE
Just another cigarette break
Love song
Version Mary 10.1.7
Save The Date | Audio Recording
7. Rainbow No. 2
Moments like this afternoon
When the whole office is running to one side of the building
To see a giant rainbow
Arching over the city
So high above the tallest buildings
Past even the clouds left over from the rainstorm
Where to see its start and its end
We moved from window to window
Behold
God loves Los Angeles
How gratuitous His displays
How basic His color schemes
Grey and silver for the sky
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple
And a half circle
For his afternoon ritual
De lo habitual
Where the rainbow ends
Maybe it continues
A Ferris wheel
Unseen, underneath
Everything
Carrying loads of coal,
Extra socks, water,
Bonus
Rides for mankind
My mother sends me
Hyperlinks, streaming video of TV
Christians speaking in a “just” cadence
That just wants to celebrate God
Just wants to thank God
For helping us just make it through this last year
And just knows that God will bless us in 201*.
I thank God too
He who gives
And buries in the same
Sentence
Love your neighbor
As your side
Always ends on his side.
