Once again, it's time to meet the Angry Reader of the Week, spotlighting you, the very special readers of this website. Over the years, I've been able to connect with a lot of cool folks, and this is a way of showing some appreciation and attention to the people who help make this blog what it is. This week's reader is scholar/writer/DJ Oliver Wang, co-author of one of my favorite blogs, Poplicks.
Who are you?
Oliver Wang. Not this one. This one.
Where are you?
West Los Angeles, not too far from the Angry Man himself. How we've never crossed paths at Santouka is a mystery, indeed.
What are you?
Overeducated but under-realized. A sonic hedonist. Bumbling father/husband and prodigal son.
My business card however says: "Assistant professor of sociology at CSU-Long Beach." I've also been known to occasionally write on music and culture. And I like records.
Demographically, I'm full Chinee, second gen. Strangely, Chinese people think I'm Japanese and my Persian dentist thinks I'm hapa. Go figure.
What do you do?
Much of the time, I think about/write about/research on/collect/play music. As a scholar and writer, I'm very much interested in ways that music and society intersect, how music helps define who we are, how music impacts us as a society. As a collector and DJ, I'm infatuated with finding songs to obsess over and be enraptured by. Outside of music though, I also explore issues of social inequality in our society, be it along racial, gender, class, etc. lines.
What are you all about?
I have no idea. I've always liked this quote from James Baldwin though: "I want to be an honest man and a good writer." It's something to strive for, at the very least.
What makes you angry?
Where to begin? Injustice intolerance, hypocrisy. I'm not fond of bullies either. Of late, I've been really angered by how the forces of social intolerance have commandeered the language of "social values" - as if equality wasn't a social value. Or embracing difference wasn't a social value. It wasn't that long ago when social justice campaigns wielded the hammer of morality but these days, "morality" and "reactionary" seem synonymous.
I'm especially angry about Prop 8 but more specifically, I'm angry at those (especially people of color) who refuse to acknowledge that gay rights = civil rights.
I'm also angry about media consolidation and how it's suffocating everything from newspapers to recording labels.
I'm just a teensy angry at the lack of good Chinese food on the Westside. Seriously, what's up with that? If you opened up a Mei Long Village in Santa Monica, the lines would be out the door.