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November 26, 2012Rapping about Pho Culture: Q&A with Alexei of Seattle’s TownfolkIf you haven’talready, click and watch the music video. It was made by Iranian-American musicproducer Alexei (@sabzi) and his collaborators for TOWNFOLK, their experimental art endeavor being funded through Kickstarter. I got wind of itvia an email and then my niece Paulina, a college senior, wrote me about it onFacebook.
The video isa smart and culturally spot-on survey of Vietnamese pho culture, particularly that of South Seattle when Alexei (a.k.a. Sabzi and Saba) lives. He's captured it all in a rap video, which has a certain Beck element of humor.
Aside from the music and video, Alexei and his pals went the extra stepof getting the language right. Their Kickstarter page has Vietnamese and video is subtitled in Vietnamese! Eithersomeone has amazing language skills or he/she got an older person to translateand type it up with all the diacritic marks in place. I was mightily impressed with the polished and thoughtful effort.
I passedTOWNFOLK’s Kickstarter link around via Twitter and Facebook but wanted to knowthe back story. How and why did Alexei do the video? That’s the reason for thisemail Q&A with Alexei: (Note: his are presented as is/as were received)
Why did the campaign namechange from Pho Life to Ph? 99? I thought the first was clever and modern.The second seems to speak more to the Viet-Am enclave/ghetto experience.
"Pho Life"originally was chosen simply as the title for the Kickstarter page. We didn'tthink much about it.Personally, after seeingthe project take life and an identity in Internet discussion, I didn't feel thename did justice to the true nature of the piece as a whole.The word "Life"appeared too broad and definitive, as if suggesting that the characters in thispiece were only about pho, or all of the identities and components thatinteracted with the project revolved entirely around just soup. We are all much more thanthat. Also, perhaps more importantly, adding the term "life" as asuffix to something rap-related has been a little overdone at this point. Played out!Pho 99 fits better forvarious reasons. It's more subtle, isn't a broad generalization, anybody who'sa super pho fan has eaten at a place called Pho 22, 55, 66, 95, 96, 99 etc andknows how common a name like that can be."99" is thecatchiest of all these in our opinion. Furthermore, it seems to stay"on brand" more than Life.What is Townfolk's mission?
i think i'll be perpetuallydiscovering what that is. first and foremost, it's a space to explore andtest ideas. today i'll say that one thing the TOWNFOLK project does islook at these ideas from multiple angles. much like the answers i listed at thetop. i find it very difficult to give short and simple answers that i feel areinformed by so many different components that all deserve attention. TOWNFOLK is a workshop that gives me free range to go nuts.How did pho get to besubject for the Kickstarter campaign? What is the rationale behind thedifferent items that you developed for Pho 99?
it began here a cpl yearsago. the music video for"Fou Lee" by Blue Scholars (rap group i'm in) features a group of uscooking chicken adobo. we considered doing a poster of all the rawingredients of chicken adobo as a piece of merchandise connected to thesong, but for some reason it didn't really come together. shortlyafter this, over a pho lunch with some friends i realized the same conceptcould be applied to pho ingredients and would probably turn out great. and it did.what followed was a wholelot of "wouldn't it be cool if we did THIS too?"a second poster, buttons,stickers, music video, raps, Vietnamese subtitles etc.Your pronunciation of Vietfood terms is great and the Vietnamese lyric translation is fabulous. How didthat all come together? Why did you include the Vietnamese lyrics?when i think of pho, ithink of soup… and it also makes me think of the neighborhood i live in,restaurants, concert posters, Vietnamese fonts/lettering on menus and signs, BanhMi sandwiches, the time a friend accidentally drank fish sauce thinking it wasapple juice, late nights at the billiards, coffee shops, thebakeries, friends, family, a food that historically comes from a partof the world i haven't yet had the privilege to visit and also makes me feel athome when i eat it. and that's just a few things. i'm certainly not theonly one that feels that way in South Seattle. it's a part of who we are.you could say this projectexplores some of those connections in a fresh way that's fun and looksgood. ::cast&crew::photography, assistant producer: @canhsolo (Canh Solo; Canh shot pics of all the ingredients for the poster, then Canh's dad made pho with the props)
illustrations: @MIS0HAPPY (Nina Nguyen)
video: @Harry_Clean (Harry Clean)
subtitles/translation: @joanne_nitsua (Joanne Nguyen-Austin)
You've already raised morethan your goal. What's next?
now that the goal's beenreached, we can make the posters! after shipping the first round to allthe pledgers, the remaining product will be available for sale at TOWNFOLK in January.I’vesaid this many times before on VWK: You don’t have to be Asian to understand Asianfood and culture. What Alexei and TOWNFOLK are doing reflects thefluid movement across cultures happening now, in urban and suburban neighborhoods. There's little that's novel about their take on pho culture. It's done with respect, creativity, and fun.
Btw, this set of buttons of Viet singer Tuan Anh (think: a cross between Liberace, Lady Gaga, and Michael Jackson) is part of the Pho 99 merchandise line-up:
TOWNFOLK's Pho 99 campaign goes on till December 4, 2012. Check it out on Kickstarter and if you're inclined, support this intersection of music, art and food.
Thoughts and reactions? Or tips on similar art and food projects? Please share your knowledge.
Related posts and links:
Beef Pho RecipeChicken Pho Recipe Pho Secrets and TechniquesHistory and evolution of pho in Vietnam and AmericaI Love Pho -- 2008 visual arts exhibit in AustraliaPosted in Asian Food Culture, Asian Food Hero, Essentials: Pho, Vietnamese Culture, Vietnamese Restaurants | Permalink | |
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Comments Rapping about Pho Culture: Q&A with Alexei of Seattle’s TownfolkIf you haven’talready, click and watch the music video. It was made by Iranian-American musicproducer Alexei (@sabzi) and his collaborators for TOWNFOLK, their experimental art endeavor being funded through Kickstarter. I got wind of itvia an email and then my niece Paulina, a college senior, wrote me about it onFacebook.
The video isa smart and culturally spot-on survey of Vietnamese pho culture, particularly that of South Seattle when Alexei (a.k.a. Sabzi and Saba) lives. He's captured it all in a rap video, which has a certain Beck element of humor.
Aside from the music and video, Alexei and his pals went the extra stepof getting the language right. Their Kickstarter page has Vietnamese and video is subtitled in Vietnamese! Eithersomeone has amazing language skills or he/she got an older person to translateand type it up with all the diacritic marks in place. I was mightily impressed with the polished and thoughtful effort.
I passedTOWNFOLK’s Kickstarter link around via Twitter and Facebook but wanted to knowthe back story. How and why did Alexei do the video? That’s the reason for thisemail Q&A with Alexei: (Note: his are presented as is/as were received)
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