from my next-door neighbor to a fellow singer in with one voice, manny lam is a friend of friends. from conversations about girls to fights over car space to first-times at drag shows, manny has provided a lot of good, (un)clean fun.  the fella's got a good heart, a semi-defined six-pac (he's gotten lazy in recent months), and a zest for life.  come meet this manny man.

interview with the geno
sunday, april 21, 2002, 1202 ante, geno's room in new pem | geno in blue, manny in grey

hi manny.  how are you doing?
i am tired.  [farts, then laughs while geno struggles to type with the laughter.]  i'm inadequate.

inadequate?
inadequate as a man.  inadequate as a person.  [sighs.]

oh, okay.  well.  how did you get the name "manuel?"  i mean, because, it's not a common first name for a chinese boy like you.
well, [laughs,] i was born in a latino country, and i had latino godparents.  and...  they christened me "manuel."  it means "god with us."

god with us, eh?  do you feel like god is always with you?
i like to think so.  em...   don't write my strange pauses!  [laughs.]  he's with me all the time, but i'm not always with him.

[laughing.]  nice answer.  so, give me some of your vital statistics.  you know, like stuff you'd put in a personal ad such as age, likes and dislikes, turn-ons and turn-offs, etc.
it's so broad!  [thinking.]  i am eighteen and six-fourths.  [laughs.] 

is that it?
[laughs.]  period.  [pauses.]  i need a girl to take care of me.

this conversation is going all over the place.  now you want to talk about girls?  that's fine.  we can talk girls.  why have you been thinking about girls so much these days?
[laughs.]  you serious?  um...  [thinks, then laughs.]  guys always think about girls.  [pauses.]  women are beautiful...  i need to find that one, that one girl.  that one girl.  but god's making it really hard for me, making me wait.  so exhausting.  [laughs.]

that one girl, eh?  do you have a rough idea about what that one girl will be like?
not... me.  [chuckles.]  i have no idea what that girl is going to be like.  she's definitely going to be beautiful...  beautiful...  [thinks]  dreamy.  [chuckles.]  i think i saw her in a dream once.  [chuckles.]  i get so intimidated by beautiful women.

oh, manny.  but you're so beautiful yourself!
no i'm not.  i'm very lacking.  [pauses.]  yeah, she's going to have everything that i don't have.  she's...  [thinks.]  i want to take her all over the world, too.  i want to travel.  i don't always want to be in rhode island anymore.  i want to be...  costa rican, or hong kongese, or french, new zealand, australian... 

have you traveled much?  where is your favorite place to visit?
i've been to canada.  [laughs.]  i've been to florida...  disneyland, or world, or whatever.  i've been to cali once, and visited a crazy uncle of mine.  [chuckles.]  and...  i've visited hong kong.  and from what i remember, it was the most humid, god-awful place on earth.  [chuckles.]  i remember getting sick, and i think i ate something really bad...  you know you go to a foreign country and eat their food and your body's just not used to it...  and...  i got so sick, i was like, i had to throw up.  i go to the bathroom and...  the bathroom's are so dirty--just a hole in the ground--and i just threw up...  i poured out my guts...  i think i threw up so much that all the blood vessels in my face just popped.  and then i had this huge mark on my face.  i thought i was going to be ugly for the rest of my life, because it looked like all the blood vessels in my face just popped.  and i was unhappy for a while...  but, i think a couple days after it all went away.  i don't know what happened.

wow.  that's quite a story.  do you like to throw up?
[laughs heartily.]  what!?  well, no.  i don't usually like to throw up.  i'm not bulimic.  but i remember that after throwing up, i felt so much better.

so, how do you know geno, and what was your first impression of him?
[laughs.]  should i really say?  [pauses.]  unfortunately, god placed me next to him freshman year.  i lived in 332 and...  he lived in...  [asks geno] 330.  um...  [spits.]  he was really feminine.  [laughs.]  he was really sensitive, and i like that in a guy.  [laughs.]  actually, you were really happy.  i remember seeing you, and we went down to providence, and you enjoyed providence a lot and you liked the architecture...  i don't know.  i think we...  [sighs.]  it was the beginning of a wonderful relationship, a wonderful homosexual relationship.

homosexual?
[laughs.]  are you really going to put that?  [pauses.]  if i was a girl, i'd marry eugene.  all you women out there, if you don't get to know this lovely guy, you're going to die unhappy.  [laughs.]

[laughs.]  nice.  but anyway, lets return to you.  you still haven't told me your turn-ons and turn-offs.  i'm sure there will be plenty of eligible bachelorettes reading this interview.  what would you advise them not to do during your first date?
what!?  [accepts the question and thinks.]  um.  well, they have to laugh at my jokes.  [laughs.]  even if they're not funny.  but, uh, i like girls that are really sensitive.  and...  what i don't like about girls.  i get turned off when girls smoke, when girls swear, and when girls do not conserve energy and turn off the lights when they're out of the room, or when they don't turn off the water when they brush their teeth or wash their hands with soap.

interesting.  i remember from last year that you were big on cleanliness and neatness, to the point that you wouldn't let me sit on your bed if i was at all dirty.  are you big on that kind of stuff?
of course!  well, i mean, basically--if you're clean--you can get in my bed anytime you want!

so, tonight we went to the asian arts festival and saw a whole bunch of women perform and share their voices.  in response, you called yourself a "masculinist."  what does that mean?
what are you talking about!?  i didn't say that.  [yes, he did.]  don't put words in my mouth!  you liar!  [pauses.]

okay.  well, i think this interview is very complete.  do you have any last words for your admiring public?
i want to be loved!  i want to love and be loved in return!

that's it?
peace!  [laughs.]

[ back to top ]

notes | posted 04.21.2002

People of Celebrity Heights.

GINA KIM
diva queen of trance and industrial design.

MANUEL LAM
he's not a boy, not yet a man.

DANIEL SIM
the "slim," unadulterated.

MELISSA TSANG
the great normalizer.

Related links.

celebrity heights
stories, biosketches, and profiles of influential people in geno's life

college hill
ADMISSION ESSAYS AND OTHER SCHOLARSHIP MATERIALS

the twid-batch school
papers, essays, and other academic works

Other places of interest.

photos  ///   THANKSGIVING 2001
what is there to do over thanksgiving break?  how about go to disneyland? or celebrate your niece's hundred-day birthday?  or see the family?  well, geno did it all.  come see what conspired.