under the cover, over the sea

Three covers I am really liking:

Jason Mraz covering All Night Long


Fanfarlo covering In The Aeroplane Over The Sea


Lou Barlow covering Bulletproof

the worrying kind worrying

I've just learned that I am not a complete selfish bastard who has no regard for anybody else but myself. (Trust me, I've been accused of such.) It's a revelation.

I actually am feeling really bad right now, all because someone I care about broke up with her first boyfriend, and I am worried for her.

Yeah, now I am not just worrying about myself and all my troubles. I've taken on other's problems as well. Nice.

I think it's better to be a selfish bastard.

great danes

Five things I learned from Oprah this week:

- I like them Danish. No, not the pastry, but the peeps who live in Copenhagen. (I know they are called Danes - but then you wouldn't have gotten the pastry joke.) They are supposedly the happiest people on earth. They have free health care, they pay you to go to university, they subsidize you for three years after you lose your job, and they don't believe in getting married for the sake of getting married. How novel. And they are not very religious. Oh, and they got cool furnitures - clean lines, minimalist. I need to move there. It's time to stop feeling like a loser just because I am single (I want to feel like a loser for all the other, more legitimate reasons).

- I do not want to live in Dubai. I don't like those clothes people wear. Men wear kandura, and older women wear some beak-y masks on their face. Makes them look like the Nite Owl from The Watchmen. I know that's pretty culturally insensitive, but seriously they kind of freak me out, like talking chimps and Michael Jackson's face. (Wait, now I've gone from being culturally insensitive to being dead-celebrity-icon-insensitive.)

- Sometimes robbers need love too. The story of Greg Smith, the robber who ended up praying with his victim Angela Montez (bless her heart) and giving up his gun, totally tore me up. I was like a whimpering idiot watching that segment. Life is hard, and sometimes it just takes somebody to look you in the eye and treat you like a human being- to save you.

- Rick Springfield looks freaky these days too, in a wax museum kind of way. There really is no good way to fight aging, other than to let it happen and welcome it with your open (arthritic) hands.

- Flash mobs make the world a better, happier place.

By the way, if the Danes are so happy, what the hell was chapping Hamlet's hide? I guess he didn't get the memo.

i don't wanna be

The thought just occurred to me (again while driving) that life is full of traps, and it is very easy to become the person you don't want to be.

Just think about it. We are all just inches away from being that annoying, nagging, needy, greedy, selfish, self-absorbed, bitter, angry, overweight, lazy, crazy, neurotic, egotistical, boastful, vengeful, petty, faithless, cheating, obsessive, insecure, ungrateful, pretentious, superficial, dorky, judgmental, controlling, irresponsible, loud, sulking, rude, kill-joy, self-righteous, ignorant, racist, cowardly, or boring person that we can't stand. I mean, really, how close are we every given moment to being that person? It's actually quite hard to keep your balance when life just throws you curve-balls day in and day out to trip you up.

Unless it's just me.

come back to me

I was driving home listening to the radio (I rarely listen to radio), and David Cook's Come Back To Me came on. I actually have never paid attention to the song before. But for whatever reason, I heard the lyrics this time. And it goes like this:

You say you gotta go and find yourself
You say that you're becoming someone else
Don't recognize the face in the mirror looking back at you

You say you're leaving as you look away
I know there's really nothing left to say
Just know I'm here whenever you need me I'll wait for you

So I'll let you go, I'll set you free
And when you've seen what you need to see
When you find you, come back to me

Take your time, I won't go anywhere
Picture you with the wind in your hair
I'll keep your things right where you left them
I'll be here for you

Oh and I'll let you go, I'll set your free
And when you've seen what you need to see
When you find you, come back to me

And I hope you find everything that you need
I'll be right here waiting to see
You find you, come back to me

I can't get close if you're not there
I can't get inside if there's no soul there
I can't face you, I can't save you
It's something you'll have to do

So I'll let you go, I'll set you free
And when you've seen what you need to see
When you find you, come back to me
Come back to me

So I'll let you go, I'll set you free
And when you've seen what you need to see
When you find you, come back to me

And I hope you find everything that you need
I'll be right here waiting to see
You find you, come back to me

You find you, come back to me
When you find you, come back to me
When you find you, come back to me

Therein lies the problem. They don't come back. After they go leave and find themselves, they don't return. You can wait forever. You can keep a light on. You can carry an eternal flame. And enough torches to burn a forest. And still they won't come back. They go their selfish ways. Everyday that passes, they are just that much farther away. Meanwhile, you sit here, frozen, not able to lift yourself out of the quicksand of self-pity. Sometimes they even appear in your dream, and you wake up feeling even crappier than the day before. The idea that they are also sitting out there somewhere underneath the same bright stars, thinking of you and feeling remorseful and regretful and nostalgic for what you once had together, is ludicrous, pure sci-fi, or at least pure pop song fiction. Yeah, they go and find themselves at the cost of destroying you and your faith in love and humankind. And they don't look back, much less come back. Ever.

Not that this has happened to me or anything...

cloudy with a chance of piroshki

Check out this extra-terrestrial cloud formation over Moscow:

domo monday

Weather: Verge of first storm of the season
State: Depressed
Music: Where The Wild Things Are soundtrack
Last Movie: I Love You, Man on dvd
Reading: Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (stuck)
Last Pleasure: Drinking out of my Domo coffee cup. Oh how I am a geek - I am all excited about the Domo tie-in they are having at 7-11. I don't get the connection but what the hey. I ran out to get a pumpkin latte and stole any extra cup. I shall return soon for the slurpee cups and straws.
Last Worry: My damn knee pain again, the Patriots
Last Bummer: Obviously the Pats losing to Denver in OT, and Zev & Justin losing passport and thus getting eliminated from Amazing Race despite coming in first in the leg (I was really warming up to them and was on the verge of picking them as my team to root for - ugh!)
Looking Forward To: Getting my long-delayed computer delivery. Damn you, Dell - where the hell is it?!
Not Really Looking Forward To: Getting fat(ter)
Tired Of: Michael Jackson - okay already. The dude's dead - can we please stop milking this?
Gas Price: $3.13/gallon
Clothes: White Old Navy's undershirt, RL jeans
Today's Headline: White House blasts insurance sector report
Current Desktop Wallpaper: Mike Perry's "The dust of space is the sand from a broken hour glass"
Last Website Visited: Glee forum
Last Meal: Seared scallops, asparagus in olive oil/lemon juice, spaghetti with mushrooms/tomatoes
Last Purchase: Shark pocket steam mop (verdict is still out on whether to return or not)
Item Off My Wishlist: Tivo HD
Latest Evidence It's A Beautiful World: Fran Healy's songwriting and good-nature
and

OPENING OCTOBER 16

fran-ny & andy

Yesterday nite I saw Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop of Travis play an acoustic set at Cafe Du Nord/Swedish American Hall. It was a chronological trip through Travis' catalog, from the first song Fran wrote all the way to the newest song he just wrote on the road (called Holiday). Fran told back stories of the songs and even had a slide show along the way, while Andy accompanied. Sitting there mesmerized by both the storytelling and the music, I was reminded of why I fell in love with Travis to begin with. The Man Who was a seminal album for me and probably my favorite of the 1990's. I spent many hours trying to finding myself while listening to As You Are, Driftwood, Writing To Reach You, Why Does It Always Rain On Me, etc. (It's not their fault that I didn't actually end up finding myself after all was said and done...) I told the guys as much when I got them to autograph my ticket and pose for a photo after the show. By the way, both Fran and Andy are extremely nice in person. Here are some videos on youtube of the evening:

you are stupid

Every once in a while, something comes along to lift you up from your depths, to shake you loose from your doldrums, to make you realize life is paved of little golden nuggets of unexpected moments.

This video below did it for me.

This video has everything that most Hollywood summer blockbusters sorely lack - explosive action, comedy, villainy, comeuppance, conflict, escalation, climax, satisfactory resolution, tension, provocation, shock, cultural significance, a thrilling pace, memorable catch-phrases and quotable quotes (we will be uttering "you are stupid" for a long time to come), and yes, girl-on-girl action(!!!). I was endlessly entertained. The first time I watched it, my mouth was wide open in disbelief. And with every repeated viewing, I discover something new about it.



And of course, the REMIX:

all is love

Some soundtrack love -

Karen O - All Is Love:


Death Cab - Meet Me On The Equinox:


Glee - Somebody To Love

flash forward randomness

My Flash Forward vision of my life six months from now would likely go like this: I am surfing on the internet while half-watching tv and listening to iTunes. Yeah, I highly doubt there would be anything mind-blowing happening to me in six months, or for that matter, six years. So, future, surprise me already...Madonna and Lady Gaga were in a very unfunny SNL skit yesterday nite. This is kinda disappointing, cuz M's many past SNL moments were hilarious (Wayne's World dream sequence, Barbra Streisand skit...). Oh well, at least she looked hawt...I went to Mitsuwa Marketplace in San Jose this morning and bought a whole bunch of Japanese grocery goodies. Check out the tofu packaging. I love them Japanese marketing. They had a Ramen Santouka inside, with a huge line too. I had the set lunch with chashu ramen and fish roe over rice. Yummy. After the ramen, I had a green tea panna cotta cake. Yeah, there goes my (mystical, only-in-my-mind) diet...Yesterday Jas and I went back to the Bethel Grace church to volunteer at their Saturday food distribution. No incident to report. Just a couple of hours of hard manual labor. I was doing soy milk and then potatos. Don't like doing potatos...The Pats are 3-1, and Wes Welker (my favorite WR as of now) actually played after missing a couple of weeks. See, it's not all doom and gloom...Samoa's earthquake-induced tsunami killed over 150 people, and Indonesia 7.6 earthquake is expected to have killed over 1,000. So tragic, and so scary. I really need to get my emergency supplies in order - I keep saying this...I am getting ready to watch the second episode of Amazing Race 15. Man, I seriously heart this show. Last week's season premiere was so exhilarating. I already have my villains - the professional poker players pretending to be homeless youth counselors. The Tokyo challenge, starting with the team playing on some nutty Japanese game show (calling a Japanese game show nutty is rather redundant, isn't it?) and ending with teams leading packs of tourists through the chaotic streets of Shibuya. Then they ended up in Vietnam, where they have to herd ducks through a course. Oh this stuff just gives me such great joy...I have never heard of Muse until recently. And I've come to find out that their album Absolution is quite brilliant. Have I living on the moon or something? I mean, I would like to visit the moon and everything, but I really wouldn't want to live there...