Electric Ladyland

korean flourishes

i work close to k-town in manhattan and go there for korean yummies from time to time.  last night i went over to han ah rheum to pick up some sashimi and some gyoza (also some kimchi tofu and some sauteed spinach) after work before going home.  it was my present to myself for making it back to work and getting on with my life a little step at a time.  still not feeling normal but after a 12-hour session with my bed, better.

on my way i passed this sign in the window of a restaurant.  i first noticed it a couple of weeks ago and noted to myself that it was the first time i remembered seeing anything calligraphy-like in k-town.  i haven't had much exposure to korean calligraphy but am curious.  korea is an east asian culture;  they must have similar traditions involving the brush and the written word, no?  ironically, the only korean calligraphy i remember seeing came from the japanese drama tokyo wankei, in which the japanese protagonist (a calligrapher, yay) went to korea to study their form of the art because he had fallen in love with a zainichi korean woman in japan.  a dramatic scene followed in which she happened upon him standing by a large piece of the korean word for promise, which incidentally was pronounced just like the japanese word -- "yakusoku."  the music swelled and it was love love all the way.

but back to the calligraphy itself, i am still thinking it would be very interesting to see some actual korean calligraphy, not something from a tv drama or a shop window.  this weekend i'll be calling my cousin, who is back in korea working on his doctorate in korean poetry.  think i'll ask if he has a link or two to share with me.

smiling on a saturday

just got back from doing the laundry.  i'm sick but it won't do itself.  while out and about on a sunny day with blue skies (so nice to see that after being locked in my house for a week!) i went to get two posters framed.  they're large art prints from the MTA's art for transit series and both feature flying subway cars coursing in the air, in one set being chased by neighborhood children and in another swirling around the iconic empire state building.  both pieces are sunny and cheerful and, as the proprietor of the framing shop pointed out, they will brighten up the room in which they're placed. 

that would be my living room, which has been pretty much devoid of any wall decoration since i moved in five years ago.  i'm embarrassed to admit that but there it is.  naked, boring, plaintive and despondent walls.  no wonder i don't spend much time in there.  since i have the cash to do it right now i'm decorating a little.  i hope it will help.  especially in springtime, when it's warmer and i can throw the windows open, the living room will be all the more inviting.

the owner of the shop gave me a $90 break and free delivery on these two monster posters because it was going to cost a lot to get them framed and they are quite large.  that was sweet of him.  i left the shop with a smile on my face and walked back to the laundromat also thinking happily of how i will submit my application for a teacher's license in basic calligraphy this week.  i got the form and became eligible to submit it (with a fee) after passing shodan (初段) last year.  sensei said to hold onto it until i felt like i wanted to do something with it.  now i do.  soon i will be certified to teach basic japanese calligraphy.  i didn't expect that to be a byproduct of my studies but it is a pleasant one.

slow recovery

still sick.  was seriously ill this week.  thanks to the kind care of an excellent doctor i am slowly recovering, but he and i both expect it'll be some weeks before i'm at 100% again.  i've been home lying in bed by a humidifier eating chicken soup and drinking tumbler after tumbler of poland spring.  incapable of doing anything i would normally term productive, i've been watching more tv shows and movies than i thought possible.  here's the roster of everything i've culturally imbibed since getting sick as of this writing:

• movies (i'm prepping for the oscars)
  
  • dreamgirls
  • the queen
  • little children
  • the science of sleep
  • wordplay
  • a guide to recognizing your saints
  • blood diamond
  • little miss sunshine
• tv shows
  • the office (US) (latest episode)
  • battlestar galactica (latest episode)
  • extras (season 1)
  • star trek TNG:  season 3 (selected episodes)
  • star trek ENT:  season 2 (selected episodes)
• japanese dramas
  • 僕だけのマドンナ
  • 高校教師
  • おやじぃ
  • beautiful life
  • バージンロード

i'm hoping to watch notes on a scandal and season 2 of extras this weekend.  tomorrow night choi and i are watching bride and prejudice over takeout indian food at her place.   that should be some nice low-key fun.  it would be nice to, um, see a friend or something.  being shut in for the better part of two weeks makes you miss your buddies.  i've had to cancel enough outings as it is. 

hopefully i'll be more myself by the time next friday rolls around -- that's when i'll be going to my first-ever go-kon (合コン).  never having been on one i can't define it with authority yet, but my general understanding is that it's a group outing with an equal but small number of guys and girls in a friendly setting.  should any of them take a liking to one another then they can choose to start dating.  when i googled go-kon in english i got a ridiculous wikipedia entry that made it sound like a whisperfest for the socially awkward.  that contrasted strangely with a mainichi news article i found claiming it's a swingers' fest for horny women (except what's this in the japanese wikipedia about a ヤリコン?  WTF, perhaps literally?).

both those english-language assessments sound way off the mark.  of course the japanese wikipedia entry is more informative (didn't know the コン in 合コン derived from the word for company as in companionship).  anyway, my friends are taking me so it should be fun.  more like a drinking party at an izakaya than anything raunchy or library-like.  anyway, we'll see.  not too many americans participate in this sort of thing so it'll be a bit of a novelty for me.

on another japan-related subject, while home recovering today i received some excellent news:  i've been promoted to 2nd dan (二段) in calligraphy!  sensei called just after receiving the graded assignments from japan and asked if that didn't make me feel better.  what a surprise.  i'd missed the deadline for the large winter assignment but somewhat brashly decided to turn it in anyway and although they noted that they don't usually accept late entries, they did take mine and deemed it worthy of a promotion.  woohoo!  that encourages me because i both worked very hard on the piece and considered it one of the best ones i'd submitted in a long time.  i'll still have to bore down and practice with intent if i want to reach my goal of achieving 3rd dan by year's end but at least now there's one less level to worry about.  hooray! 

winter blues

my frozen little valentine.  achoo!  still sick.  i guess it was optimistic of me to think that i'd be rarin' to go in just one day.  i got suspicious when the breathing trouble flared up again last night.  still, this is far better than yesterday and that chicken soup is tasting mighty delish now that its various ingredients have had a chance to blend flavors.  i hear it's nasty out there and i wouldn't want to leave the house anyway.  still, getting a little of that cabin fever feeling.

heal thyself

good thing i called in sick today.  things were beginning to get a little squirrely healthwise and i had to call a time out.  fortunately this battery of liquids turned my situation around quicker than i expected:  water, orange juice, green tea, emergen-c, and homemade chicken soup.  i started feeling noticeably better in the early afternoon.  was going to go to calligraphy class tonight but that's off;  just as well because i hear we're about to get socked with a messy winter storm.

it's frustrating to get derailed like this but i take it as life's little reminder that sometimes you need to slow down.  so i watched several back-to-back episodes of the office and tittered to myself.  definitely put me in a better mood.  got one bit of personal research done today:  located a forwarding address where i can send my letter to the collectors sylvan barnet and william burto.  great.  i really want to thank them for sharing their collection with the public.

i'm still working my list of people to contact and programs to consider.  meanwhile, the internet has told me in no uncertain terms that i have a green light to go to grad school should i wish to.  i mean, the personality quiz told me so!  and the internet doesn't lie!  it also told me my exotic dancer name should be skittles but i think it was just having an off day where that quiz was concerned.  off i go.

You Should Go to Grad School

Grad school definitely isn't for everyone, but it looks like it's for you. You have a pretty good idea of what you want to study - and how it will further your career. So go ahead and go for it! You're ready to be a PhD.

Should You Go To Grad School?

achoo

i've been battling a cold since last tuesday night when i came down with something very quickly.  i sometimes try to be a bit of a soldier about these things but this morning i had trouble breathing with all the goo in my lungs so work is not happening.  grr.  ok cold, fine.  you win the battle but the war is on... i've got water, oj, emergen-c, green tea and homemade chicken soup (glad i roasted that chicken the other night -- that was serendipitous) all at the ready.      

city wanderings

been a rather busy critter lately.  plenty of things i could post about but i'm going to keep it brief tonight because i feel the time slipping away as if there were a real hourglass in front of me.  simply not enough hours in the day.

the artistic motif continues to flower.  i went to see sleepwalkers at moma one night last week with choi.  i don't relate much to the concept as i've been so active, more than usual, that i haven't even been getting much sleep lately.  i purposely didn't read up on the film in advance but went just because i found the idea of projecting a film in separate segments directly on the moma building rather novel.  i would go watch something in this setting again especially if i didn't end up with frozen feet.  all was well in the end, though.  choi and i trekked back to the hood and went to dinner at jj's.  i had nabeyaki udon and that made everything better.

on other artistic fronts, yesterday i went to buy a portfolio case in manhattan.  picked up a lovely one half off at blick on bond street.  went to a local cafe for some two hours of letter writing and journal writing.  towards the end a man started a conversation with me asking if i was an artist.  i think he thought i was some young NYU thing or something.  the chat was interesting in parts but he quickly revealed himself to be an answer man (my term for the type of man who offers advice on any and all subjects as if he were the authority and as if you were asking for the advice).  it got a little silly when he found out that i practice japanese calligraphy and he then tried to explain bushido to me as if i didn't know what it was even after having learned that i'd already lived in japan.  "oh honey.  let's not even --" i thought.  but he did!

still, it can be fun to have chance meetings with people in manhattan.  there are all types of people here and the variety (infinite diversity in infinite combinations -- those vulcans were on to something) is still a perk of living in gotham, no doubt. 

essence of inspiration: the gift that keeps on giving

mokuan piece of the day:  "essence."  the poem:

"flowers open and heaven reveals its essence."

i found this by accident while doing a web search about mokuan.  this piece is housed at the british museum.  i was in the middle of writing a letter to sylvan barnet and william burto, asking them if they knew the origins of this obaku format of presentation (large character at right, zen poem illuminating its meaning at left), when i paused to search for some examples and happened across this composition. 

the barnet and burto collection was displayed here in new york in 2002 at an exhibition entitled the written image.  it was there that i met mokuan shoto, jiun onko, hakuin ekaku, and other great japanese calligraphers for the first time and it was there that i got started along this path.  my letter is in rough draft form at the moment but i will polish it up over the weekend and send it on its way.  i've read several accounts of the collectors wondering whether or not the public would take an interest in japanese calligraphy.  i was never surrounded by many people when viewing the barnet and burto collection in new york, washington or boston.  in fact, i recall spending large spells of time completely alone with the works.  however, they had a lasting impression on me and i want to thank those two gentlemen for the inspiration.

DDoS attack on name servers

i noticed some DNS weirdness this week.  i wonder if this is why -- a DDoS attack on the 13 root name servers of the internet.  apparently it happened on safer internet day and targeted the server that handles .org domains. 

cold room, warm tea and the dance of a brush

last night i went to calligraphy class and because of the bitter cold, i ended up being the only one there.  it was nice to have a personal class even though it was frigid in the classroom and i could feel myself coming down with some sort of bug which is threatening to sideline me.  i showed sensei the ehon exhibition book i'd bought while on lunch break earlier in the day and we talked about the show.  he'd seen it in december before our class's bounenkai.   

we also discussed the mokuan piece i'd done last week ("in the pot there is a separate heaven") and the type of brush that usually works well for such bold zen calligraphy.  apparently i'd cheated by doing a bit of sumi-tsugi (replenishing the brush with ink before finishing the second character).  good to know these things.  and now i've got to relearn how to sign pieces once they're finished.  according to sensei you have more flexibility in the long run if you actually keep your pinky finger flush to the paper while executing the signature.  i did not know that.  he said "these are things one should know in order to become an artist."  了解. 

i had some success with both my sousho and gyousho pieces which may be ready for submission as early as next week.  then it's on to kaisho.  this weekend i'll work on a couple of signatures for my mokuan piece and even have another crack at it.  next week i'll bring a photocopy of "branch" to class and ask sensei to help me decipher the original japanese text which translates to that poem i love, "the garden of spring color will not stay closed.  a branch of red apricots comes over the fence."  it's so nice to be able to do pieces of my choice in addition to the regular curriculum now.  keeps the flow of inspiration fresh.