August 29, 2002

pop!

I've been dodging cables, barricades, and walkie-talkie endowed fellows on my way to and home from work as my stop is Rockefeller Center across the street from Radio City Music Hall, where MTV is hosting its VMA awards. Sixth Avenue is closed off today. Over three days of setting up, they've got little tents -- like the kind at street fairs -- where they've got catered food, complete with boxes of blow pops and ring pops. I guess when you've gotta have it, you've gotta have it.

August 27, 2002

b. 1932

Dad's 70th Birthday Cake
Birthday shout-outs to DAD who's gonna be 70!
And to LORI who's the big 3-oh, Bryan (another 3-0'er), cousin Bi (aka Paul Nguyen), and fellow AIDS rider buddy RALPH (also Africa trekker!).
This beautiful buttercream cake, decorated with bamboo to symbolize 'evergreen' and longevity, was deeee-lish.

August 26, 2002

brother bobby?

Souris concluded after debating with friends that Bobby Trendy is Peruvian Mexican... She argued "brooks said he wasn't japanese and i told dennis with fingers waving that there was no way that bobby was vietnamese."
Color her shocked when she found out the truth through Bobby's own words in a fanzine called Mini Celebs We Love from Cable TV.

INTERVIEW WITH BOBBY TRENDY from the Anna Nicole Show

what's your nationality? i'm vietnamese. both my parents are vietnamese!
how long have you been living in america? 12 years.
how long have you been in business? i've been in the business for 2 years only!
can i get a range in prices for your furniture? sofas go for $700 and $70,000.
how much are the pillows that i can get custom with my image on it? i love those pillows you showed anna. oh those are like $500.
what do you think about design? oh i thought the 80s was frozen yogurt, the 90s was coffee shop everywhere, and in the new millenium everyone has design stores like Donna Karan. everyone was doing conservative and minamalistic shit and i wanted to do something that was visually stimulating to the eye.
do you have a design background? no design background, but honey, i can throw pumpkin seeds and tampons on a rooftop and make a fortune.
really? no design experience? but you make all that furniture? yep.
have a lot of people contacted you since you premiered on the anna nicole smith show? i've received 105 phone calls this week and people are coming in and photographing me. i'm going to be in new york next month for the christopher lowell show .
will you ever open a NY shop? no, i'm staying in LA for the time being.
so you're living the immigrants dream...the american dream! i'm white now, to quote my friend, mark, "bobby you got a cell phone, you got a colgate awesome smile and a convertible, you're WHITE!"
how is it being on the ANS show?! oh next week is exciting. there's fire with me and howard . i said not to talk back to me. i said, there's a fire in my mouth and you're the propane! he's going to learn a lesson!
can you tell me a little about your background? i was one of the first club kids to be in new york. i was on rolanda, beatrice berry, geraldo . i used to hang out at cbgb's, suger babies...monster. dexter's cool.
oh we should do a map of all the clubs you used to hang out with. a where's bobby been tour of new york! oh yeah, that would be fabulous!
what kind of clientele do you have? oh, i didn't recognize carmen electra when she came in.
you didn't? i've seen her in real life and she is what she is. oh, her face was so beautiful. i knew she was very important. but i did recognize jocelyne wildenstein.
who's that? you don't know her and you live in new york? honey you need to go to more clubs ! She's a rich socialite who looks more like an animal than a person.

August 19, 2002

Bello Yellow

What birthday is complete without a Pac-Man cake, Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde cupcakes and sparkling candles? Souris' birthday production came to an end after much spending, logistics, and planning. Held in Urban Myth Media design group's SoHo loft space, there were five DJs set up to spin, 120 helium balloons transported, food cooked, party supplies bought, fab invitation designed and mailed, and a guest list loaded with New York artists, designers, and stylists... With two video game consoles running (one projected on the wall), loads of booze, contraband, and loud music... Souris' thirtieth birthday gig was a NYC bash to remember.

Are you my stalker?

Recently, someone has been running google searches on my name and browsing on all my blogs... shout out a hello, will ya? because otherwise, hey, you're creeping me out.

but we love the movies...

OK, I had a search hit for "cineplex odium theatre" which I personally find extremely amusing. Needless to say, I was the only site that came up on the search as the Cineplex Odeon perhaps understandably would not want "odium" associated with its name in any sort of marketing or write-up.

August 14, 2002

Judy Philosophy

Dinner yesterday at the famed Pearl Oyster Bar, just across the street from my house, with my buddy JK who is a fabulous florist with a gift shop that he decided to be "CLOSED INDEFINITELY." I can't remember where I first met my 6'1" Texan friend, but it was somewhere on a bike ride and it was maybe about five years ago (we both trained for the California AIDS Ride in '98 together). But I'll tell you how great it is that my friends love life as much as myself.

JK's flower shop on Capitol Hill, Through the Grapevine is wonderfully successful and built with his own two hands. Eventually, the floral shop was enhanced with a gift shop, also a grand success. One day, recently, upon evaluating some Judy Philosophy, JK decides, "ya know, I don't need to have the gift shop anymore." Why? Because he was working all of the time, between the weddings, special events, a set of clients and the shop. So what does he do? He puts a sign on the door that says "CLOSED INDEFINITELY." I have to laugh. He keeps the shelves stocked as always, lights on as if open, and a sign on the door. People come knocking, they call the number on the front, and they all want to shop there. But you know what? Life is too short to work it all away.

August 11, 2002

Fine Vinyl

Greenwich Village. Adam's house.
Housesitting while Adam's off in South Africa, the lucky dog. Today I headed to the Van de Weghe Fine Art Gallery with Souris, Kaly, and Silvio to see seven of Keith Haring's tarpaulin paintings which included the very cool Andy Mouse painting of Andy Mouse (think Warhol + Mickey) on the New Coke background. The exhibit ended to day, so to see the images, go back and check the Van de Weghe's site for "past exhibitions."

How lucky, to just walk up off the street into a two-room gallery with works of Haring on the wall, where you can stick your nose right up to the acrylic paints to see which lines he drew first, yet step back 15 feet just to set the full wall-sized painting into your direct line of sight. Only in the great city of New York (ok, a few other great cities too... but this is Haring's turf).

August 10, 2002

Added some caramel color to the hair there -- after hacking a good thirteen inches off last March, I went for another added change.

Earlier in the week, Lisa and I headed for some good Vietnamese food -- the best I've found in NYC -- at PHO BOLSA on Lafayette between Howard and Grand if you want to go. It's the most authentic Vietnamese food my sisters and I have had so far in NY and just opened about two months ago. On my way, I stopped at the new Apple Mac store in Soho's old Greene Street Post Office Building and I'm dying to get an iBook. Later, we headed to a bar in Greenwich Village (where I was carded! And I told the guy I was gonna be 30 next year), to see the premiere appearance of Van Hayride (check auraldelight.net for some background) where they did Van Halen covers for an hour. Post Van Hayride was an hour of the Brooklyn Bugaloo Blowout for great live music.

To sear or not to sear?

After martinis at the Royalton in midtown last night, Albert and I set off the smoke alarm [which is wired not battery-operated] in my apartment at midnight while attempting to sear two slabs of New York Strip Steaks for our late dinner. Funny sight it was of me standing on two telephone books underneath the alarm, the Sunday Times magazine in hand to wave the smoke away. Surely I kept the whole building up just for a steak. But a good one it was. Having had steak for dinner last night, lunch today, and dinner again today, I think I'm proteined out. Vegetarian tomorrow.

August 04, 2002

Greenwich.
I've lost my riding self. Just went for a 20-something mile ride -- headed around the corner, down Broadway, across the Brooklyn Bridge (again stopping in the middle for a drink and to tip my helmet at the space the Towers once occupied), and met Robert at Prospect Park. He'd finished six laps before I got there and truth be told, my legs felt like jelly, my lungs felt like they'd shrunk, and the humidity made me feel as though I was melting. Though the muscles are there, the strength is not -- neither is my breathing pattern, and I just can't seem to get into my riding groove. It's humbling to be passed by a woman obviously older than me, in leather pumps, on her hybrid bike sans helmet, and carrying a knapsack while I'm decked out in my Sidi shoes and 747 Shimano SPD pedals, 21 gears and the works. Okay, so I'm not used to riding with this extra 12 lbs. or so (I last weighed in at around 99 or 100, which is a huge jump from my 87 a year ago), and it's been 2 years since I've done a century (that's a 100-mile ride for you non-riding folks) and it's super humid in the city today. So much so, that the thought seeing even LANCE ARMSTRONG racing downtown in a 100K criterium wasn't enough to get me off the air conditioned train (I did not ride back from Brooklyn). He must be bored to death riding in this crappy weather doing 50 laps of a miserable 2K stretch along the Financial District's Water Street after the rolling vineyards in France. He's a pro racer, though, and as hard as his job may be, it sure beats sitting in a cubicle.