Christmas in San Diego: warm-ish, and not a cloud in the sky. :) We went for a hike at Torrey Pines State Park this afternoon and soaked up some much-needed sun. The weather here is really amazing.

Pamina Kim and I drove down tonight to see the crazy Aquilanti duo; Giancarlo cooked us a wonderful Three-Course Italian Meal, complete with penne cooked perfectly al dente. We laughed a lot, because both father and daughter are very funny. I can’t believe how fast Ale is becoming a young woman. She always deceives us because she is so mature for her age. I always think of Gabe Trop when I see her, because he used to curse in front of her non-stop, when she was just 13 years old.

Me: “Gabe: don’t swear in front of Ale!” Gabe (Ale is standing right next to him): “Oh, shit! Sorry.”

Typical. (read more »)

On a whim, I went down the street this morning and had my hair hacked off. When Vienna saw me immediately afterwards (I stopped by her place to pick something up), she started laughing. hehehehe.

I guess I’ll be wearing a hat for a month or so. :)

It’s practical, though! I’ll be on a boat for a week starting Dec 31st, so short hair is a good thing. It’s ok that I’ll look like a chiapet. Who do I have to impress, anyway? :)

I spent the afternoon at Pictopia hanging out with Mark and submitting photos for my upcoming show in February (it’s in San Diego). He has a really cute dog. :)

Kenny called me up two days ago and told me he would be showing up today and staying at my house. He and Lori made reservations at Greens a month ago, so we (the two of them, Adam Tow, and me) all went up to Fort Mason to have a nice veggie dinner tonight. I’m stuffed. :) (read more »)

Just got back from seeing The Two Towers with Sophie, Vienna, and Jim. It ROCKED. All of us wanted to go back into another theater to see it again, but… alas, it was 3:15am, and no such theater was available. Does another movie series exist that is as epic as the one that we are experiencing through Lord of the Rings? I think not. I can’t wait to go to New Zealand next month. :) (read more »)

It’s hailing! Bizarre weather we’ve been having. Now I believe Jim‘s statement that he saw snow a few days ago.

Thank you all for a fantastic surprise birthday dinner! Sophie rounded up a few of my close friends (Mandy, Elliot, Mike, Ben, Emile & Zhenya, Adam & Rae) and organized dinner at Buca di Beppo, in Palo Alto. Up until Sophie told me that we were going to Beppo’s for dinner, I thought that it would just be four of us. Something was definitely fishy, because you can’t really go to Beppo’s with only four people … but Mandy and Elliot were already with me at that point, and I couldn’t imagine how Sophie could have planned something without them being involved. I should have realized that they were in on it. :) [see adam's post]

Thanks to Dan, who (like last year) was the first one to wish me a happy birthday (he called at 12:07am) this “morning”. Amabelle would have won, but she called five minutes too early. :) Thanks to hedgie queen cyn, for making my birthday public. Thanks also to all of you who wrote and called! You all make me feel loved. :)

I had a fun morning, too. I drove down to Digidesign to lay down cello tracks for Melissa Rapp‘s upcoming CD. As usual, the other Eric was at the helm, twiddling with all of the cool audio toys.

As usual, I have photos to show.

To the folks who came over tonight: please leave me a comment here and post a link to any entries you may have written about the gathering!

Vienna Teng was gracious enough to come over this evening to sing for a Rice Bowl Journals gathering at my house. RBJ members (and guests) from all over the SF Bay Area (and from Houston and L.A.!) convened to finally meet each other in person after having been part of a close-knit community for more than a year. Vienna sang beautifully, and the other Eric set up his fancy audio equipment to capture it all. I’m sorry I wasn’t effective at setting up an interesting webcam for those of you who tried to follow it from elsewhere. I was, like… busy and stuff. ;) [buy her cd from amazon!]

In the morning, Ben, Heidi, Joel and I read string quartets for a couple of hours, which was a nice treat because I hadn’t played chamber music in a long time. I’m getting rusty. :(

OK. I really must sleep now. Let this entry be a collaborative effort. Leave comments about your experience this evening. :) (read more »)

I’m hosting Vienna Teng and 40 people tomorrow (Saturday) night — RBJ members and their guests. It should be interesting. :)

Some pics, for ya: Mandy and Elliot‘s PD thesis presentations, Newton Nash, and Pamina‘s visit.

Unrelated: I just watched Vienna on China Crosstalk (she was featured on the show for the second time). She kicks ass! Her Mandarin is way better than mine is. My favorite parts are when Jay asked her what kind of relationship she wants, and then proceeded to do an in-depth analysis of her song, “Gravity.” Also neat was seeing photos I took, and video I shot, even though neither Adam nor I were credited for our work. :)

I got an e-mail telling me that parts of my site don’t work in Netscape 4 (you know, written like I “owe” my readership something). You know what? I don’t care! Get a real browser.

Exhausted: Cars honking, E train, Victor Wishna on the upper west side, Tower, Schubert lieder, Livia / Victor at Sarabeth’s Kitchen, crabcake sandwich, Livia / Janey at Express, Lord of the Fleas, Pat / Victor / Tony / Joe at Patsy’s, Livia / Julie / Laura / Tony at Gabriela’s, Tony / Ai-jen / Haeyoung / Hyun / Ting / AJ looking over video at Caaav, the same bar, the same people, taxi back to Jackson Heights, anticipation of 2.5 hours of sleep.

I spent the day doing work before meeting Tony and Ai-jen at Cafe Spice for Indian food. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my nice coat, so I sort of look like a tool. Oh well. Who do I have to impress, anyway? :) We had a nice dinner, and den met up with Pat for dessert. And den, I took a cab up to 85th and Broadway to hang out with Livia and her friends Janey and Mike. The Juilliard world is full of gossip. They’re all crazy (in a good way, of course). :) Oh. Also below are photos of Peter, Allon, Luke, Alex, Pamina, and Pat.

Yesterday was one of the longest days I’ve had in a long time. In fact, the day seemed to last so long that in my mind, it has reached back to include the evening before as well. On Friday afternoon, I drove Geoff, Barry, and Livia to Oakland Airport to catch a Jet Blue flight to New York’s JFK airport. The flight was delayed (flight schedules were slowly recovering from the torrents of snow that had hit the day before), and we didn’t end up arriving in New York until 1am. Luckily, the folks at Avis stayed open for us, so we rented two cars and drove the two hours to Old Lyme, Connecticut, arriving just after 3:30am.

Instead of going directly to bed, Barry decided to show me his fancy new computer. I watched sleep-deprivation take its toll as he plugged his notebook into the hotel phone and tried to dial up to his Evil ISP (AOL). “Uh…. Barry? I don’t think that’s going to work,” I said. (read more »)

I saw Varekai. People are amazing.

I also had a nice dinner at Chapeau! with Livia, and spent most of the day catching up from almost a week in San Diego. I imagine that I feel like enjelani did, when she wrote this entry. Oh! Adam got a new beagle. He’s SO cute. There’s a picture of him in this entry. :)

Wendy’s exhibition, entitled “Taipei, Tokyo and More,” opened at the Taiwanese American Community Center on Sunday, December 1st. It was both impressive and inspiring to see so much of her work up in one place. Wendy’s good friends the Chinos, Mr. Eryn Roston, Maya Gurantz, and those who sired her friends Meredith Yayanos, Carey May, and Kirsten Collingwood came to check out her prints.

I spent the day yesterday on a boat in Mexican waters with James Wiseman. We went out with Lois Ann Dive Charters to the Coronado Islands, where we played with juvenile sea lions in fifty feet of visibility. It’s $85 to motor out there for three dives, breakfast, and lunch — a fantastic deal! I dove for the first time with Sitech dry gloves, and they ROCK. I was very warm and had full dexterity in my fingers. :) I’m never going back to cold-water wetsuit diving.

At one of the sites (Lobster Shack?), James and I played with and photographed a group of seven juvenile female sea lions until we noticed that everyone else was on the boat, watching us. It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re having so much fun. :) Unfortunately, many of my photos came out blurry; those sea lions move really fast, and using the crappiest auto-focus system in Canon’s line of SLRs has its disadvantages. Oh well. I still managed to get a few that I really like. :) James has also posted a trip report. Photos ->

And the Taiwanese horde descended upon the two large turkeys, devouring everything in their path.

My family normally stays home for Thanksgiving. We make a turkey stuffed with Taiwanese sticky rice, and hang out at home, sometimes with relatives or with a couple other family friends. This year, we trekked up to Villa Park to have dinner with Tony‘s family. I’ve been told that his dad’s turkey is “famous” for its deliciousness (which I found to be true).

It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a room with forty other Taiwanese people. It was definitely good to see Tony and Scott again. I always imagine Scott as a little kid, but now that he’s in college, I guess I can’t think like that anymore. The evening was relatively normal until the karaoke was turned on, and until some of the mothers started hula-hooping. Bizarre. :)