a long time

we used to kick and scream
we used to scratch and crawl
but it's been a long time
since we cared about anything at all
there used to be a river
flowing through these parts
there used to be a northeasterly
blowing you and me, together and apart

it's been a long time since
you've laughed
you saw the good in me
it was a long time ago
when you were what i wish
and i was what you need

there were disappearing clouds
and spinning plates
you had your bag of tricks
i was your ace of spades
at every intersection flashing traffic lights
had us stop and go
now after all the dancing
the music, the dj's gotten old

it's been a long time since
you've asked
where is it that i ache
it was a long time ago
when you were what i dream
and i was what kept you awake

the apple tree

This is what hope looks like.

good eats

Places in the Bay Area I wanna eat at:

Little Skillet
Adobo Hobo
Creme Brulee Cart
Magic Curry Man
Sexy Soup Lady
Spencer On The Go
Ici Ice Cream
Citizen Cake
Brenda's French Soul Food
That Takes The Cake
Kara's Cupcakes

hope, poop, murder and basterds!

Brad Pitt is really a bastard. He supposedly called Tom Cruise's Valkyrie ridiculous and said that his own new movie Inglourious Basterds is the end all of Nazi movies. Dang, he is arrogant. Actually in the last couple of years, from walking the red carpets to his talk show appearances (particularly the Oprah interview), I've been finding him, along with Angelina Jolie, impossibly smug. As with all people like that, I cannot wait til he's knocked back a few notches...Some reality show contestant allegedly killed his ex-girlfriend/swimsuit model. He cut off her fingers and removed her teeth, but the police was able to identify her by her breast implants (!!!). The guy has now fled to Canada, and a huge manhunt is on the way up in Vancouver area. Crazy...A myterious foul smell has been stinking up the city. I initially thought there was some dog poop on my driveway. Then I thought maybe my sewer pipes have bursted underground. And now I think it's biological warfare...God, football season is upon us, which means more highs and lows watching the Patriots. Why do I do this to myself???...Why? Because you always got to have hope. Like, the apple tree that I thought Chi Young and I had killed while transplanting it. Well, we've been watering and feeding it and monitoring it every few days since, and guess what? Leaves are sprouting from the branches once again!!! Yup, hope springs eternal. What was dead is now alive again. Or was never dead to begin with. See, you can't give up, on yourself, on love, on world peace, on the environment, on other people (you-know-who), on your favorite team (the Pats), on your favorite musician (Madonna), or on your apple tree. One day, good intentions will pay back in spades.

P.S. Okay, this is freaky. It's about 7:10pm. I just saw this update on the reality star murder case. The guy killed himself in a motel near a town east of Vancouver. The town's name? Hope...

wise guys

I got these Wise Guys owls from Mibo Studios. Actually you pay a pound and they email you the template and you have to cut them out and put them together. But they are cool. It took me about two hours. (I am not the most crafty of persons obviously.) These are my trial owls. I think I am going to buy nicer glossy papers and redo them.

you gave me rainbows and butterflies

10. Sondre Lerche - Good Luck

9. Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition

8. Kings Of Convenience - Mrs. Cold

7. Madonna - Celebration

6. Fiona Apple - Why Try To Change Me Now

5. The Very Best - Warm Heart Of Africa


4. Calvin Harris - I'm Not Alone:


3. Miike Snow - Animal:


2. Simian Mobile Disco - Audacity of Huge:


1. MSTRKRFT w/ John Legend - Heartbreaker:

the wrath of khan

Because it ain't right that India's biggest superstar Shahrukh Khan got detained in a US airport, here is a youtube tribute:

the magnetic field

I got these magnetic boards from Ikea that I hung up this weekend. Here is a snapshot (click to enlarge):
1. (500) Days of Summer advert - the summer movie I haven't seen.
2. Postcard from Cambodia, from Tat (he goes everywhere, so I asked him to send me a postcard from various places).
3. Wagamama - a Japanese noodle joint I went to in London.
4. Chi Young on his 5th birthday.
5. No Doubt magnet I got for joining the tour club in order to secure ticket to the recent show.
6. Chinese magnets I acquired from HK a number of years back.
7. Magnets from a pizza joint I used to go to before I quit pizza; brings back plenty of bittersweet memories.
8. Yoshitomo Nara postcard.
9. District 9 movie ticket - great movie. Opened at number 1 this weekend with over $35M.
10. My commuter check from work. Fast pass is now $55.
11. Little Prince postcard - my favorite children's book.
12. Vietnam postcard from Tat.
13. A photo I saw on the net that struck me. I like the lighting effect, and the girly legs.
14. It says "The descent to Hell is easy." Got that right, buddy.
15. I bought these children's photos in Chiangmai.
16. Reykjavik postcard from Tat.
17. Stockholm postcard from Tat.
18. John Virtue postcard I got from the National Gallery in London.
19. Before Sunset postcard Esther sent me. I freaking love this postcard. Thx, Esther.
20. Madonna magnet that I think I got from Universal Studios, or somewhere down in SoCal. Happy 51th birthday, big M!!!

eskimo sex and other funny business

An Asian co-worker of mine is going for the egg donor route to get him and his wife a baby, so today he had to go do his business (I know, his telling me this borders on too much information territory). He told me that he was quite nervous going into the room where they had porn ready for him. And the woman in the porn video was Asian. He wondered if that was planned, that they had assumed he would prefer Asian porn. I think this is pretty curious too. If I were him, I would go back out to the clinic staff and say, "Excuse me, I am not much into Asian porn. Do you have anything with horses?" or "Got one where they put that red plastic ball into their mouths?" or "How about Eskimos?" and see what kind of reaction I would get. I think that would be pretty funny...I found this post from Perez Hilton hilarious: Miley Cyrus can now add herself to the extremely long list of women (and some men), famous or otherwise, that have had their hearts stolen by Robert Pattinson. She once confessed that she didn't understand why girls were so obsessed with him, but after meeting him this weekend at the Teen Choice Awards, she came to a better understanding. True to Miley fashion, she took to her Twitter to tell us all about it: She wrote: “Gave a hug to Rob Pattinson today. Ok girls I get it now. So cute. Sorry "Robby" bout all my bashing in my past." Uh, excuse you? His name is R-Patz, not "Robby". Please don't try and turn him into one of your hillbilly playthings. We won't stand for it!...Equally hilarious is this news story from Paris about a Russian woman who attacked the Mona Lisa by throwing a teacup at it. The hilarity is, why a teacup? I mean, this woman apparently packed a teacup into her bag to throw at the Mona Lisa. If you were going to do this, would you pack a teacup? Plus, the Mona Lisa is behind a protected glass, so why harm would a teacup do? According to some report, the woman has Stendhal Syndrome, where the sufferer is compelled to act irrationally when moved by a work of art. Uh, ok, now I've heard of everything! By the way, the Mona Lisa is heck of small. I was really surprised when I saw it in person. In my mind, I always pictured something more imposing.

punch or milk, buddy?

Yesterday Jasen and I went to volunteer at the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley for their Street Meal Ministry, which serves free hot meals to people on the second and last Saturdays of each month. He signed us up thru the Asian Americans for Community Outreach group. It's my second time doing this for this church. I really enjoy this kind of activity. I was doing the drinks - I don't know how many times I had to say "Punch or milk?" which then became "Milk or water?" when we ran out of punch. And I don't know what possessed me, but I was calling the guests "sir" and "ma'am," and at one point called some guy "buddy" when I was getting a cup of milk for him. I never address people that way normally. Anyways, I hope to do volunteer work more often. It's a good way to spend a Saturday instead of surfing the internet and buying crap...Watched Australia and The Incredible Hulk on blu ray. Australia was too long and tedious. I hated the aborigine stuff, which is as politically incorrect as saying I hate children and the environment, but that mystical bit is all kinda boring to me. Not that the Nicole Kidman as uptight English lady and the Hugh Jackman as rugged cattle drover bits are any more interesting. I think Baz Luhrman did drop the ball on this one. Where's that renegade who made Strictly Ballroom or Moulin Rouge? This stuff tries too hard to be a Hollywood epic. The Incredible Hulk wasn't bad. I mean, it's pretty standard comic book fare but elevated by the always reliable Ed Norton. I am surprised though that he would involve himself in this and not a superhero movie of more originality (like Christian Bale's Batman movies), buddy...I was talking to this guy Nick I met yesterday about how everyone needs to have one karaoke song in his repertoire that he can do really well, in case you get into a situation where you are pressured to sing in public and you don't want to end up being a party pooper (people don't like wet blankets, go figure) and you also don't want to totally embarrass yourself (fun for others, but not so good for your own ego to be a laughingstock). So I've been thinking about this. It has to be a popular enough song so it's recognizable. It can't be too hard to sing, so no Whitney type ballad when you have to go for soaring high notes. And because I seriously think I am coming down with a case of premature Alzheimer's, the lyrics can't be too hard to remember. I am thinking my choices should come down to 1) Johnny Cash's Ring Of Fire; 2) Jason Mraz's I'm Yours; 3) Beach Boys' Kokomo; 4) The Beatles' Hey Jude; and 5) Dido's Thank You. What do you guys think? Any suggestions, buddy?...I find this article, about how clocks and watches are always set to the default time of 10:10 fascinating. I had never noticed this before, buddy.

i am a gleek

GLEE - it's coming back, but not soon enough. Just from seeing the pilot episode, I declare this to be my most anticipated series of the fall. It was that good. It just made me happy.

Mark the day - September 9!!!!!

500 days of zooey and joe

I love it when people break into dance. I wish we can all break into dance in the course of our day, while we are on the commute train, while we are in an office meeting, while we are standing in the supermarket checkout line, while we are being held up in a bank...

some kind of wonderful

Sadly John Hughes died today of a heart attack. He was in his fifties.

I loved, plain loved, John Hughes movies. From Sixteen Candles to Pretty In Pink to Breakfast Club to Some Kind Of Wonderful to Ferris Bueller to Weird Science, he defined eighties cinema for me. I connected to his teenage characters, their quirkiness and alienation and yearning and earnestness and hopefulness. They were trapped in a world where parents and teachers just don't undestand and the other kids looked down on them. But then deep down they really were the coolest, fairest, most decent of them all. It would take them a while to figure that out, but eventually they do find their ways, all to the soundtrack of The Smiths, Simple Minds, OMD, and the like. Please, please let them get what they want.

Check out this remembrance of John Hughes. It tells of what a wonderful spirit this man was.

And:

dope

How awesome is Bill Clinton? He actually got N Korea to release Lisa Ling's sister and friend.

Meanwhile, I think Obama is still having his beer summit. Yeah, you know those Obama "Hope" posters? Is it too soon to change the "H" to a "D"? Now, I've never caught the Obama fever and had always thought the emperor has no clothes, but come on, a beer summit is a dopey move that is truly worthy of the Dubya.

mad man

Weather: Dreary, just plain dreary
State: Rested
Music: Miike Snow
Last Movie: Taken on blu ray, Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince in theater
Reading: Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Last Pleasure: Madonna's Celebration single and won tons @ Won Ton King on Irving
Last Worry: My health
Looking Forward To: Seeing Fran Healy with Andy Dunlop of Travis @ Cafe Du Nord
Not Really Looking Forward To: The work emails that have accumulated in the last few days while I was out
Tired Of: Jon & Kate - I have never seen an episode but already od'ing on them based on all the tabloid coverage
Gas Price: $3.03/gallon
Clothes: Dark grey long-sleeve tee from JCrew, Lucky jeans
Today's Headline: Remains of First US Gulf War Casualty Found
Current Desktop Wallpaper: Dyna Moe's Mad Men illustration
Last Website Visited: Mad Men Yourself
Last Meal: Macaroni and mini meatball in soup
Last Purchase: Martin + Osa black trench coat
Item Off My Wishlist: Lock & Lock nesting bowls
Latest Evidence It's A Beautiful World: The dancing on SYTYCD - how do they do all that?

north of the future i go

The last randomness redone, Palin-style:

The majestic sky, the unbridled shores, I can see from my backyard Sweden, or Switzerland. All countries, no difference, the same stretched like an abandoned highway, abandoned like a long lost love, started seven years ago, began abruptly like a superhero origin story and then ended some five years later, like the fall of the great arch-nemesis. The breath of summer is warm but not today, not in this corner where winter's song play like a movie marathon, movies about boy wizards, and doomsday clock, and travelers to Barcelona. The relentless wind of December blows, untimely, blows away dancers and their dreams. But dreams are like Russian nesting dolls. And dreams are like pizza, which you cannot abandon. Pizza, the great one, sitting on the plate like the great wilderness for you to embrace all that it contains. So, I walk the wilderness, for the life that is along the road that is north, north of the future I go.

along the road that is north to the future

- Today I was cleaning up and happened upon my 2002 calendar. On May 28, 2002, I played hooky from work and went to watch Spider-Man with her. I guess that was unofficially our first date. Who knew that would have led to me falling so hard and then hurting so bad? I hate Spider-Man. With great love comes great heartbreak.

- Swedish is not same as Swiss? Who knew?

- Sarah Palin's farewell speech: "...Soaring through nature's finest show. Denali, the great one, soaring under the midnight sun. And then the extremes. In the winter time it's the frozen road that is competing with the view of ice fogged frigid beauty, the cold though, doesn't it split the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs? And then in the summertime such extreme summertime about a hundred and fifty degrees hotter than just some months ago, than just some months from now, with fireweed blooming along the frost heaves and merciless rivers that are rushing and carving and reminding us that here, Mother Nature wins. It is as throughout all Alaska that big wild good life teeming along the road that is north to the future..."

- On Wednesday, I fell off the wagon. I ate pizza. I know, I am a big freaking loser who can't keep a promise to myself, much less other people.

- Is it just me, or is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince extremely boring? I was struggling to keep awake. But I must profess my (somewhat creepy) love for Emma Watson; she is turning out to be quite a looker. Also I really like the character Luna Lovegood - what a quirky and thus lovable girl! They were playing (500) Days of Summer next door. I wish I have somebody to go watch that with. Still can't do the movie alone thing.

- Watchmen - meh. Vicki Cristina Barcelona - fun (with a very good Penelope Cruz), except ending is kinda weak.

- All my favorite dancers are now eliminated from SYTYCD. I like the girls this season better than the guys, so I hope one of the girls win. But then again, we all know it's really about Cat Deeley.