Electric Ladyland

spring in the city

it was a good day.  got up late, puttered around, then went to the post office to mail off my taxes and a special care package consisting of easter candy and a mix CD to my friend in palau.

went down to chinatown directly after that and paid a visit to oriental culture enterprise, where sensei said i could find a new inkstone and get a seal engraved.  these folks are cool.  the prices aren't bad at all.  for about $35 total i've got a custom engraved seal coming to me in about a week.  i chose 光華 for a few different reasons.  had originally planned on doing it as 光花 but sensei said that was a bad idea -- poor vertical alignment or some such thing.  maybe he was concerned about the stroke count.  so 光華 it is.  there was a great selection of brushes there and had i already not plunked down a fair amount of money for the seal and inkstone combined i might have indulged.  it was interesting knowing i had something in common with the grizzled old chinese guys buying brushes. 

i walked up elizabeth street until i got to houston.  it was weird noticing the abrupt transition from chinatown to super-hip nolita.  i actually ended up walking behind a girl clutching a designer bag dragging her teeny kick-me dog around the neighborhood.  i shifted up to bowery and then made my way to dumpling man since i was in the mood for some street eats.  i had been there a few months prior and honestly, that time the dumplings sucked.  they had been laying out in the air for god knows how long and meh, they were just bland and stiff.  but this time the dumpling-making moms were out in force searing my pork monsters to order and they were delish.  i guess food is also about the timing.  i also kind of like the counters and stools where you can just park yourself and wolf down the dumplings in peace and solitude.  don't ask, don't tell.

after filling up on those bits of goodness i shimmied over to sunrise mart and picked up some onigiri -- tarako (spicy cod roe) and ume (pickled plum).  the tarako was especially good.  didn't know they had such good onigiri there!   of course it doesn't hold a candle to the gourmet options at oms/b in midtown but sometimes you just want a plain old rice ball like mama used to make.  someone's mama, not mine in this case, but a mama nonetheless.

after that quick and satisfying meal on the go i luxuriated in two hours of nothing but journal writing at astor place.  i broke it down slowly, going through all that had been swimming around in my mind over the past week.  when i checked to see what time it was i was taken a little aback.  time flies...  and also, to think i had been there just a few weeks ago looking at people wading through the slush after a big snowstorm!  today there were blooms to behold and i saw people reveling in the spring sunlight.  seasons pivot on a small period of time.

went to whole foods to do a little bit of grocery shopping.  grinned a little as i passed the aisle of greeting cards.  calligraphy, anyone?  this sort of stuff used to impress me but now that i've gotten to a certain point in my study my reaction is kind of like "hrm...  i'd like to have a crack at this.  i could do something that i would like better."  if i ever wanted to send a card with calligraphy on it i certainly would rather do my own. 

i've settled into a saturday ritual of buying flowers.  my jewish mama buys them on friday for shabbos instead but flowers are good any day of the week.  i've been getting roses lately and tonight i bought a dozen of them, long-stemmed, in deep magenta.  when i got home i noticed that there was something soothing and meditative about cutting the flowers and arranging them in the glass vase.  there's freshness that rises from the cuttings and peace in the silence while i prepare the roses.  i'm sure a lot of japanese ikebana enthusiasts would be saying "and where have you been?" at about this point.  better late than never.

out and about

just got back from another farewell party.  what is it with everyone leaving anyway?  and what is it with me not being able to get home before about 11 o'clock any night this week?  not that i'm complaining -- it's been a fun week -- but my apartment is starting to show the signs of my absenteeism.

i got shots for yellow fever and typhoid in preparation for my may trip to ghana today.  the doctor told me that there was an eensy weensy chance i might catch yellow fever from the yellow fever shot.  oh, and 50% of the people who get yellow fever die from it.  now i know the chances of all this happening are infinitesimal but i don't like hearing anything involving me and dying.  i think i was a little more sensitive to the idea than usual having just recovered from pneumonia, which itself was a scare.  she had to check to make sure i was back to normal before going ahead with the shots.  these things can give you pause.

as expected, though, i feel fine -- still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, all enthusiastic about my first trip to africa.  in a couple of days i'll be able to say "next month." 

the day went fast.  it's been like that a lot lately, traveling at triple-time.  friday's almost here and with it, the weekend.  i cannot wait to catch up on some sleep and some quiet.   

awakenings: zen figure painting

mom and i went to the members' reception for awakenings:  zen figure painting in medieval japan at japan society tonight.  our reactions to what we saw, whether positive or negative, were point for point exactly the same.  after some discussion we determined our preferences had to do with the use of line and direction in the compositions.  mom then connected that to the use of line in music, opening the door to a whole different conversation.  my eyes kept darting toward any writing i saw accompanying a painting, honing in on the calligraphy to see what styles were being represented.  i saw characters i'd been struggling with just the night before.  sometimes i had to remind myself to step back and look at the painting too.  mom said she'd learned several things she never would have known by coming with me to exhibitions such as this one and that made me smile.  it is nice to be able to share an appreciation with someone close to you.

it was crowded tonight in the gallery so mom and i just did a pass-through and focused on the things we liked the most, then agreed to come back at another time when we could read all the accompanying explanations and look more closely at each piece. 

one of my favorite works from tonight's exhibition was the four sleepers by mokuan reien.  i liked the image of hanshan the poet all curled up.  i intend to do the same tonight.  the air is soft and cool, perfect for falling into a deep slumber.

with this mic i thee serenade

what glorious weather we had today!

i ran out to get some sushi and had half a mind to just plunk myself down in bryant park and bask in the sun, but when you're this close to launching a new floor things come up.  i did revel in the atmosphere, though.  it felt good to be alive in weather like this.

work was gonzo as one could expect, but it was plenty fun too.  people have been telling me i look like i'm really enjoying my job.  i guess that's the case although since i'm working my @#*&! off while doing so it's a bit different from my perspective.  i'm running on adrenaline, caffeine and excitement.  it's hard to get to sleep at the end of a go-go-go day like the kind i've been having.  but i wouldn't have it any other way...

after work, though, i dashed down to calligraphy class and was the only one there.  calligraphy for one.  sensei was busy doing this and that upstairs so i got a chance to wind down, grind ink and sit in silence for a while.  that reset my energy and calmed me down.  probably did me some good.  then i spent about an hour working on a gyousho assignment.  these days gyousho seems to be my favorite of the three styles i'm practicing.  it occurred to me that since gyousho is a semi-cursive script, maybe that's not so odd -- my own personal handwriting style in english is semi-cursive as well.  i handed in that piece and with it finished the school year. 

in japan, march is the end of the school year and april, when the cherry blossoms arrive, is the season of renewal and new beginnings.  i'm looking forward to another year of learning alongside my classmates.  there were shikishi hung in the classroom as i practiced alone tonight.  each one featured calligraphy done by a friend of mine.  although the room was empty i was happy to have their positive energy near me.  they say handwriting reflects your inner character and i could see elements of the people i knew in the calligraphy they'd done.  i didn't feel lonely at all.

tonight we had a farewell party for one of my classmates who is getting married and moving to vienna.  i will be very sorry to see her go but she's very much in love and has made the decision.  tonight we went out for karaoke and i sang only love songs in honor of the happy couple.  i went old school with "i wanna hold your hand" by the beatles (she loves the beatles) and "i only have eyes for you" by the flamingos.  i busted out some japanese songs as well: 幸せになろう by 宇多田ヒカル (utada hikaru) and ロビンソン by spitz.  my classmate and her fiance were adorable sitting there making googly eyes at each other.  i know sometimes people feel lonelier watching other people in love but it had the opposite effect on me.  i got all mushy.

well, tomorrow is another day.  here we go...  良し！

e-world, art world

monday got off to a roaring start.  before i knew it the clock read 4:30PM and i still had so much to do.

yet, things are in good shape.  i feel good about the next two weeks at work, which is important because two weeks are all that remain until the launch of our next floor. 

it's beginning to seem ridiculous to me that i thought it would be a good idea to take a college course in project management for information systems during the same time as this office renovation, but i'm weird like that.  last week we handed in our second assignment, a statement of work, and i was really concerned that i'd bombed that one due to lack of adequate preparation.  there's clearly a gap between perception and reality operating here because tonight i found out that i scored 10 out of 10 points.  i guess i should relax and just understand that i'm doing better than i realize.  still, though, our third and final assignment is the biggest one yet -- a detailed high-level project plan due two weeks from tonight with an oral presentation also due on the same night.  which also happens to be the same day we do the office move.  oy.  but i'll try to keep perspective on this and not sweat it too much.

i'm still trying to squirrel away a little time for creative projects.  tonight i did a few little things for friends of mine in the arts and started looking around for a good theme for my next calligraphy piece, which i plan on submitting to this year's JET journal.  it has to be concise, nothing too grand.  i'm batting about the idea of doing 一期一会 since i think that fits the JET programme quite well, but then again it's a rather well-known expression to those who study japanese culture.  one of my journals from a couple of years back has a lot of zen sayings of which i am even more fond but it's taking a while to rummage through them.  that's the only problem with dead tree edition journals (which i love, mind you, and plan to keep writing indefinitely):  they're tactile and satisfying to write in but you can't google or search them.  sometimes reconciling the two worlds i straddle -- the tech world and the humanities world -- flummoxes me.

local talent

half the fun in life is trying out new stuff.  last weekend i decided it was time to branch off from the beers that i know and tried something new:  smuttynose's IPA.  i chose them out of new england loyalty.  the IPA was pretty good but, over a weeklong testing period, didn't really stand out.

i have something that does, though:  ithaca beer company's double IPA.  i was looking for something with a little more oomph, nuttiness and all-around flavor to it and this fit the bill.  they proudly proclaim it's made from new york hops.  lady liberty is featured on the packaging hoisting a pint.  god bless america.

there's a lot of new york-specific yumminess to be found if you look for it -- or even if you don't.  i looked over my local c-town's ice cream selection to see if i could find ben & jerry's new flavor, stephen colbert's americone dream.  no dice but i did notice something unknown to me peeking out from a corner.  it was a pint of 5 boroughs ice cream in amaretto amore.  said it was an astoria-based startup (woo!) focusing on making ice cream just for the five boroughs.  i had to try it.  had a spoonful while still putting away the groceries after i got home and had to slap my own hand to keep myself from just inhaling the whole thing.  put down... the ice cream...  they have other flavors such as rich white vanilla (UES) and landfill (staten island).  i'm kind of surprised that they didn't yet offer the bakla-wha? flavor in my astoria supermarket -- it'd be an instant hit! 

speaking of local food, i've noticed that my c-town is bringing in more organic and eco-friendly products bit by bit.  they've expanded their seventh generation stock and today i noticed for the first time that goya is marketing organic canned beans.  must be pretty new cause you can't even find them on their web site.  anyway, whole paycheck whole foods is great for peace of mind where that's concerned but it's also valuable to shop your local grocery stores, ask for organic products and then buy them to show there's a market for them.  i remember when my former roommate, a public health nutritionist, waltzed into a just-opened food market around the corner from us and requested organic beef only to be met with a puzzled look as the man behind the counter mouthed the word "or-ga-nic?"  things have improved since then, thankfully, but it's good to keep seeking this stuff out.

not long now... spring is on its way

spring is emerging.  this morning as i wandered around my house getting ready to leave so i could meet a friend for brunch, i spied this bird perched in the tree outside my kitchen window.  the tree itself is budding, stealthily preparing to shock and awe us all with a sudden profusion of green leafiness sometime next month.  i assume this bird is one of the many that have been singing outside my window lately.  they are a welcome reminder of the changing seasons.  i have been freezing my butt off in my apartment for far too long, huddling up in one room with a space heater rather than enjoying the whole of my apartment cause it's too damn cold to do so.  not for much longer.

so today i met my friend for bruch at cafe lalo, a place i hadn't been to in a few years.  we had belgian waffles with whipped cream and cherries.  oh my was that good.  i'm not much of a waffle person but i know a good thing when i eat it and that was a bit of all right.  hello.  the young ladies dressed up as waitresses didn't seem to think we needed a check even when we asked for one so we took our time letting the food settle before emerging from the cafe for an afternoon walk.  when we did it was a quick dash to scharffenberger, where i indulged in a grand marnier truffle, and then we ambled through central park on our way south to hell's kitchen.  i think we walked for a good 30 blocks before parting ways.  i then went grocery shopping before heading home.

now back in astoria, i'm working on mix CDs for friends.  i've got one done and am finishing up the other one, which takes a bit more tweaking because it is a response to a mix CD i got from a coworker a few months back.  that requires more thought since it's kind of a musical dialogue.  he interspersed songs with definitions of words, mostly melancholy ones like enervate and so on, expressing the ennui he was feeling towards his job (he since resigned).  i didn't have a microphone when it came time to record my retort so i bought an italk.  this thing is neat!  the sound quality is great and i could see many applications for this little device.  so far i'm using it to record word definitions as well, albeit mostly positive ones save karoshi.  i followed that definition with todd rundgren's "bang on the drum all day" for a little twist of humor.  i'm having fun with this little italk contraption so you might well see a podcast here someday in the not too distant future!  watch out now!

writing japan

i recently contributed a posting to the Japan National Tourist Organization's Yokoso!  JAPAN travel blog discussing life in rural shizuoka prefecture, where i lived from 1998-2001.  it can be found here among some well-written posts from JET alums and others involved with japan.  i actually used the JNTO web site when planning my trip back to japan in the autumn of 2005 so it's nice to be able to give something back.  strong memories, long forgotten, returned as i was writing this piece.  i went through all my photos of japan in order to find the ones featured alongside the article and i realized just how much more i have to write, to say about my time there and what it has meant to my life.   the fact that it all began nine years ago just makes no sense, does not compute.

in other news, i'm just about done reading shutting out the sun.  although it struck me as a bit melodramatic at the beginning it got a lot meatier and provided some intriguing food for thought not much later on, contrasting the korean economic boom with japan's anemic response to globalization trends.  zielenziger closes in likening the whole country to hikikomori.  i would have never thought to do that but there are some parallels.  not knowing much about korea, though, i learned quite a bit from his treatment of their recent history.  i'd like to read a good history of their country next if i can get my hands on one.

gratitude and friendship

i just got done doing my first commissioned work, so to speak.  a coworker of mine who's got some experience in chinese knows about my calligraphy work and asked me to do a thank-you card on special paper for some other coworkers to let them know they're appreciated.  so i figured to do 感謝 (thanks, gratitude) and when i got home tonight, i did.  two separate versions, one a good measure better than the other.  i'm glad i ground the ink strong because it was a little challenging trying to whip that brush tip around on thicker paper that actually had little flecks and things in it. 

i was satisfied with the second version i did.  another thought satisfied me too:  about three years ago a different friend asked me to do 寛容 (forbearance, generosity) as a gift for someone and i demurred at the time, finding it too challenging to produce something of which i could be proud.  it makes me glad to know i now can not only take on these happy requests but enjoy doing them too. 

today must be all about the friends.  yet another friend was having a horrible day and wanted to get together.  at first i balked because i wasn't feeling well but then i thought better of it, bought her a bouquet of multicolored roses that made me think of her and then went out to dinner with her and a friend.  we were all exhausted for various reasons but ended up having a great time.  it really seemed to cheer her up, too.  i was glad to be there for her.

weekend regeneration

i've settled into a bit of a saturday routine.  get up late, slowly fumble around with the vague idea of leaving the house at some point, revel in the comfort of pajamas as opposed to work clothes and peaceful silence at home as opposed to nonstop high-speed interactions at the office, and then eventually emerge into the early afternoon daylight. 

today has been one such day.  i went down to the village and reset myself back to where i want to be by sitting and writing at a cafe for a good solid two hours while gazing out the window at all the people struggling in the slush.  my thoughts settled and i passed some time that wasn't crazed or rushed.  wild to think that sometimes life is not like that, not full-throttle jam-packed hours of meetings upon meetings, then errands and homework assignments until late into the night.  that's just the way it is right now for me.  all the more reason to spend at least one day a week resetting myself back to what i call normal. 

after i'd written to my heart's content for one sitting i ventured out on a few errands.  first, i picked up a bottle of glenlivet.  i've been meaning to do this for a long time now.  years ago my oniichan took me to a scotch tasting back when i had no idea what scotch was, nor did i have much interest in it either.  all i knew was that my mother was fond of it while my father preferred bonded bourbon.   that night i learned that i like glenlivet aged for 12 years in french oak barrels.  surprised the heck out of me. 

a couple of weeks ago i had an amusing interlude involving scotch.  after calligraphy class some of us went out to a local cafe-restaurant of which i am not a great fan.  these people are always reinventing themselves, renaming and redecorating their restaurant, reshuffling their menu.  i once had the worst mojito of my life there.  actually sent it back (i almost never do that).  got a dirty look and an equally horrid mojito in return.  this place also has the distinction of being the only public eatery where i have found milk and cookies on the menu.  i am not kidding!  weird place.

anyway, it was cold and this establishment was near the school so we went.  had a passable dinner and the companionship was great so that made up for the overall dubiousness of the restaurant.  we felt like staying a while afterward and so, having been further disappointed by a glass of wine that i'd ordered, i decided to ask what scotches they had.  macallan's was available so i ordered that.  figured they couldn't screw up what was in a bottle.  sensei ordered a glass of port.  when a different waitress came with our drinks she moved to give sensei the scotch.  when i said it was for me she said "the lady drinking the scotch... i like that!" 

exactly how did we determine that certain varieties of alcohol have a gender?  if you order foie gras that has no gender.  men and women enjoy it with equal gusto and nobody's going to make any assumptions about who usually gets it.  scotch, apparently, is gendered.  i find it all amusing.  scotch is just good.  poor sensei got burned by asking for port but not finding out which labels they had.  you really gotta watch it with that place.  they have a different idea of what good is.  i can't exactly veto going there so i tried my best to navigate their menu without getting hit by a land mine.  i think i may have a safe route now.

so back to my relaxing saturday, after picking up the scotch i did a little shopping for work clothes (gotta keep it classy) and then got my groceries at whole foods.  picked up a bouquet of brightly colored long-stem roses.  as i was in the checkout line i could hear people talking about my roses.  an older man and his wife struck up a conversation with me about how beautiful they were.  i likened their color to a sunrise -- all shades of red, orange, coral and gold were represented in each bloom.  simple things can make you happy.  or, put another way, simple things can reflect your happiness.  that's all it takes.

well, now that i've reset my energy levels it's time to pour a pint of guinness in honor of saint patrick's day.  that teeny irish bit of me wants to celebrate even if it's snowy and overcast.  then i'll practice some calligraphy and see what comes out.  got a few different style books sensei lent me, some things i've never tried before.  should be novel.