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Shuffled! is a weekly column appearing every Thursday here on BPRLive. Each week, we welcome a person from the APA community to share some thoughts about the music they listen to. Check out the Shuffled! archive for past articles.

Today’s Shuffler: Saymoukda “moOks” Vongsay

Saymoukda Vongsay is a Lao American writer, spoken word poet, dj-in-training, and agent for social change.

Currently holding it down as an associate editor for Bakka Magazine, she is also an advice columnist and associate editor for Focus Entertainment Magazine. “moOks,” as she is known by many of her friends, has performed at universities, museums, theaters, and festivals in the United States as well as in Japan and Italy. Saymoukda recently released a collection of poetry entitled, No Regrets. Along with several community projects, she is currently working on a new novella entitled, Flooded With Blood and Breath. For more information, peep http://refugenius.blogspot.com.

Now, on to the shuffle…

Sparring Minds
GZA featuring Inspecta Deck
The first time I heard this joint, I just got through sucking on a menthol outside of the Dinkytowner Café, a basement hip hop club in Minneapolis. I had just flicked my cigarette in the direction of a parked Civic and the song that came through its cracked windows was this track from Liquid Swords. I don’t remember the exact reasons—whether it was the lyrics or the beat—but I made up my mind to be real gregarious and tapped on the kid’s window and asked him to turn it up. When the song finished, he pressed eject and handed me the disc all because he agreed with me that the line “The magnitude of the devastation untold – the collective laws of countless souls lay in the road” was pretty niiiice.

Hey You
Pink Floyd
Even though I’m not a devout Floyd fan, this song is super deluxe sexy to me because it reminds me, first of all, that everyone can feel isolated sometimes, and secondly how important it is to break out of the construct societies and governments like to emplace. I’ve noticed lately in my little town that the numbers of black and white police vehicles are popping up ridiculous like coochies backstage at a rap show. They say the reasons behind it are tradition and better visibility so that five-0 stand out from civilian vehicles. They’re just trying real hard to get us comfortable so when shit pops off, we wouldn’t second-guess them. Three words: New World Order. Two more just for kicks: Martial Law.

God
Tori Amos
Home girl is amazing. As an artist, she is like an amalgamation of potpourri made from citrus peels, Marlboro Menthol Lights 100s, Japanese purikura, cranberry vodka in a high ball, and skewers of chicken satay—many of the things that make my life well balanced. It’s safe to say that this song alone has inspired me to compose roughly thirty poems—just the idea that this mighty beautiful being, God, should have a female equal is pretty inspiring when you realize that our existence is a sex-coded one—the dichotomy of man/woman. It was the music video for ‘God’—with the rats crawling into her blouse, the leg shaving and how she licked blood off from her knees due to a razor cut—that cooed me to nestle under her piano all these years.

Loyalty
Blue Scholars
I got into this crew when my partner came back from a Hieroglyphics tour, hands full of complimentary Blue Scholars albums. Staying humble and doing my thing—that’s been one of my personal mantras since my first listen to this joint. I remember stalking Geologic a little bit, and I emphasize ‘a little bit’, back when I was a fervent member of AsianAvenue.com. It’s almost embarrassing to admit, but I was young and the Internet loosens people’s inhibitions and free time.

Hush
Automatic Loveletter
I have an affinity for women with raspy cracked imperfect grimy voices. As a writer my motif is relationship and love so this song written by Juliet Simms is something I can admire and relate to. Plus, I really dig her musical persona—she rocks a fierce style and yet it’s romantic simultaneously. Some people aren’t impressed by this song when I play it for them and they get all didactic on me but then they relent because they understand how unpretty love songs pull at my heart strings.

Last 5 posts by shuffled

• Shuffled! Wendy Hsu - January 1st, 2009
• Shuffled! Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai - December 18th, 2008
• Shuffled! Theo Gonzalves - December 11th, 2008
• Shuffled! Scott Kurashige - December 4th, 2008
• Shuffled! EyeASage - November 27th, 2008

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