Cingular wireless service has launched a $20 million ad campaign as it enters New York's already saturated market. Subway ads, billboards, bus kiosks, and even entire buses display the trendy orange anthropomorphic logo.

In the West 4th street station, among several, was one that showed the little Cingular logo in the corner and a phone. The text read:

Studio apartment: $2000
Dinner for two: $425
Pre-school: $13,000
Cingular wireless service: $29.99

Somebody went at it with a big black magic marker and printed the text underneath the last line:
FREEDOM FROM CORPORATE RULE: PRICELESS

Unfortunately, it didn't last more than a week by the time I went by with a digital camera, and they replaced the ad altogether with a different concept. Perhaps they realized the power of Mastercard's campaign?
Funny.

Kim comes to town this weekend and Saturday we head to the Ethyl Barrymore Theatre to see Tale of the Allergist's Wife. Otherwise, things seem pretty calm in New York and the heat has eased off a bit.

Last weekend, my cousin Chuong from Vietnam -- and my Vietnam tour guide extraordinaire was in town to visit Souris and Kaly, whom he hadn't seen in 21 years. In grand Vietnamese style, Chuong's family is full of doctors, lawyers, and seven of eight kids who went to Berkeley, most with post grad degrees. Surely their parents are proud.

funniest search hit in the last few days?
taco truck new york upper west side

The other day Kaly and I ate at a favorite and newfound vietnamese restaurant where we met the nice family from Hue who owned the place and got stuck there in the raging thunderstorm. We saw three people get up to leave and upon arriving at the exit, they scanned the severity, and the one TOOK OFF HER SHOES AND SOCKS as Kaly and I watched in HORROR as we anticipated her next unseemly move - to run BAREFOOT on the FILTHY rotten sidewalks of CHINATOWN. Streets filled with rubbish, rotten food, animal and human excrement -- disgusting. She pulled up in a car and picked up her friends who handed her shoes and socks back which they protected from the rain. Uhhhh... my feet are more valuable to me than ANY pair of shoes.

Today there was a major blackout in the grid below 14th Street and west of Broadway - wherein I live smack center. Turns out there was a tremendous explosion that cut out my electricity. I assumed it was the construction guys working upstairs on the apartment above me (they're renovating it while it's vacant) and I was waiting over an hour for Kaly to come down for lunch. Little did I know she was sadly stuck in the subway between 72nd and 59th. To kill time, I called Julia who lives at Union Square, and Dave, her husband, tells me they're out of power too - "Hey" I exclaimed, what a funny coincidence. But Dave tells me about the explosion at the ConEd plant on the east side. At least I felt better about Kaly being late, but as an hour and a half went by, I was pretty worried. Eventually I heard a knock on my door and realized Kaly was lucky enough to get in while someone else walked out, because the buzzers weren't working either... Ugh. It was an utter mess today below 14th with traffic and pedestrians all about, with no sense of whose turn it is to cross the intersections.

Chuong is in town and it's almost 4 a.m. (we're already reading the Sunday Times which we picked up at 3 a.m.) so off to sleep now and I'll finish later when I'm more coherent.

photograph © Calder Estate
Last Wednesday, Kaly, Souris, Silvio and I attended the Whitney Museum of American Art Summer Exhibitions opening reception. Good food, drink, and art. S & S's friend, David Lee extended the invitations as David's sister, Yvette, was the co-curator for the Joan Mitchell show - one of the five summer exhibitions. Meeting Yvette (whose name is painted on the wall!) was great - she told us how difficult it was to select just 59 paintings out of hundreds to showcase Mitchell's lifelong work. The other exhibit we browsed was Claes Oldenberg's drawings - of which the Whitney has the largest collection in the world. Of course, we quickly browsed Calder's mobiles, a favorite for Souris, David and myself.

Thursday we did the family thing for Kaly's birthday, and Friday I joined Kaly and her friends for a birthday dinner, was out late, got up 2 hours later, and headed to D.C. with Ed for Mike & Sue's Cherokee ceremony and purple and white outdoor wedding in Harper's Ferry.

Busy weekend; didn't even see mom and dad, and I'm back in the swing of work and the NY scene. I've thought of another job for myself - to work as a classroom assistant in a Jewish pre-school. I loved being in school with Mica in Atlanta, running around the playground, learning Hebrew, singing out of tune, and eating afternoon snack (ice cream on Fridays!). I think it suits me much better than working in a law firm...

The race has begun.
The 2002 Tour de France is already underway, with the prolog and Stage 1 complete. You can read minute by minute updates of the entire race under the newsflashes on their site and find out other cool info. Of course, with out satellite (heck, I am without TV!), internet coverage is next best. In fact, internet coverage is more interesting than my experience with OLN's coverage (as compared, also, to the former coverage by ESPN2) since they do such a bad job of editing the race for max info and excitement. As such, I'm still not motivated to ever buy a TV.

Just spent an incredibly lazy weekend with Les, who came in on Wednesday night, eating, drinking, and being merry in the Village. Independence Day went without a bang, as it was insufferably hot and we chose to nap over trekking to the East River. Dined in NY staples like Corner Bistro, John's Pizzeria, and Cornelia Street Cafe. I still vote for Lombardi's as NYC's best pizza place (in Soho on Spring Street).

Like I said, lazy weekend. Oh, except for the part where I biked six or so miles across Brooklyn Bridge (and paused to tip my helmeted head in the direction of the WTC) to meet Robert in Prospect Park for 21 more after a 23-month hiatus in the saddle. Though the legs aren't sore, I'm not the same cyclist I was at 23...

DON'T GO HERE

There's a REALLY bad Vietnamese restaurant at University & 13th Street called Annam. All the waiters are Chinese and only the busboy can speak Vietnamese. I ordered Goi Tom which is supposed to be made with red onions, pickled daikon & carrots (Vietnamese style), sliced boiled shrimp, lotus shoots, peanuts, cilantro and mint. Instead, I got boiled shrimp tossed over romaine lettuce. Uhhhh... they call romaine Vietnamese? BAD. So Kaly and I asked the busboy what dishes were ACTUALLY Vietnamese dishes there and he replied that there were only about four (he actually tried to tell me that the salad I received was, well, "lai" which means mixed culture to which I adamantly replied, "Sir, it is 100% NOT Vietnamese"). So if you go there, the only thing you can order really is the Banh Cuon with Thit Bo Nuong which is the Grilled Beef skewers with rice cakes (or rice noodles). Basically, just DON'T GO THERE. The absurdity is that underneath the word Annam on the door are the painted words, "A Vietnamese Restaurant."

Search Hits

I'm noticing that in the last week, many of my hits are coming from Google searches. The things people search!

The funniest search I've had:
MARIO CUOMO FIGURINES

and a few more...
for my Asian Pacific Adventures:
ten thousand buddhas, temple, niagara falls, restaurant
chinese lunar calendar 2002 good day to get married "good day to get married"
vietnamese wedding + reception
great gurus that impacted my life
turkeys airways bangkok (on Dutch Google)
names and themes of diners cafes
candy strangers frostbite
"dave eckert", cia
pretty + spider + driving + product -man

for this blog
japanese "locks of love"
"pork taco" dc
bus trips to bush gardens to williamsburg

The Film Forum, just four blocks from home (and one of those things that makes New York the greatest city on earth), is showing Mel Brooks' The Producers for an extra week, with a spectacular summer filled with Akira Kurosawa's films starring Toshiro Mifune complete with new translation of Seven Samurai which means new subtitles. Next week I'll hopefully manage to see Luchino Visconti's Rocco and his Brothers (director of The Leopard) starring Alain Delon!

Suddenly I find myself triple booked and the options are:
Get my bike from Long Island from Ed who gave the Hoo Koo E Koo a thorough washing, lubing, brand new tires and Mr. Tuffys (which Stella's shop in Brooklyn removed and never replaced afterwhich I received my first (and only) ever flat)...
Dinner with friends who are going to Vietnam and need the low-down on do's and don't's (a comprehensive list will eventually appear on the sidebar here --->). I'm beginning to think I need to write a must-read travel book for Vietnam visitors in correspondence form rather than the guidebook listing type... does anyone know a publisher who wants to publish it?
And, of course, ITALIAN lessons, as over two years has gone by since my last course and I'm desperate to pick it up again.

That leaves me with no choice, really, because Italian is the answer, and so tonight, I tried to plan on doing some last minute cramming of reviewing my notes of two years ago, but alas... I'm blogging. And so tomorrow, we hope that Robert, il mio professore, will not be picking on me too much.

On the subject of blogging, East West Adventures is getting hits from a new site called New York City Bloggers which literally maps New York Bloggers on the subway map - super cool.

Imagine

They took my sign down in Times Square.
Since I've been back (and probably since September), there has been a plain white billboard in the heart of Times Square with plain black Helvetica type that read:

Imagine all of the people living in peace.

Underneath that board ran different billboard advertisements, most recently an ad for HBO's Six Feet Under. HBO's billboard was replaced, in an odd contradiction of communicating a message, with Showtime's network that advertised:

More fights than any other channel on network television.
complete with red image of a sweating boxer with his right arm outstretched, finishing off a punch.

Two weeks after the fight sign went up, my peace sign went down.

Just in from New Paltz, New York
Awoke at 6 a.m. this Sunday morning to go rock climbing with Katy, Eric and Damian in New Paltz at the Mohonk Preserve, home of the Shawangunk Mountains (a.k.a. the Gunks) where we gently ascended upon the rocks today. Eric and Katy taught us how to get sticky with the rock, and sore as I am at the moment, I'm addicted. We scaled two climbs, the first named Jackie, which was on a Gunk scale a 5.5 climb (according to our fearless leaders, Gunk ratings are generally more difficult than West Coast ratings) and our second climb, whose name I forget, which was a 5.9+ where I didn't get to the top but tried my best.
i'm in crash mode though, so must write more later.

THE ALL CLAD IS HERE.

So I have just discovered that my paper engineer IDOL has his own web site. About two years ago, I first met Robert Sabuda on a training ride while we were both training for the Alaska AIDS Vaccine Ride. I ran into him again in Alaska where I said something along the lines of "oh, hey, are you Richard?" And he kindly replied that he was Robert. Through mutual friends Enrique and Vinnie (whom I met on the airplane between Houston and Anchorage), we all spent our last Ride day having a grand seafood dinner together.

Back in NYC a few months later, Enrique tells me how Robert is a children's book artist (WHOA, I exclaimed, as I am an avid collector of children's books), and then he goes on to say that Robert is a POP-UP ARTIST at which my excitement increased by leaps and bounds as I am an ardent admirer of pop-up and origami. Eventually, Kaly and I went to Robert's book signing at Books of Wonder, one of New York City's most fabulous children's book stores where we were so enthused, we purchased at least a half dozen of his books (including a copy of Cookie Counts: A Tasty Pop-up signed to me). If you only buy ONE book this year, you MUST buy Cookie Counts. It is the most exquisitely beautiful and fascinating book I own. In the winter of 2000, I brought it to the Epstein school's 3-year old class and I read the book to our twelve 3-year olds. They were popping out of their seats and made me read it three times, and then about 3 or 4 parents went out and bought it. My aunt Lori and my sister Kiki went out to buy about a dozen more of Robert's books for holiday gifts, and then their friends in turn, as enchanted by Robert's amazing pop-up talents as we were, all went out to buy copies.

In 2001, Robert curated (or co-curated, I can't remember) the Brooklyn Pops UP! exhibit at the Brooklyn public library, of which I caught the remnants of the show. He worked with renowned Maurice Sendak and many other children's book artists for a project (and pop-up book!) for the show.

One of these days I would love to have a Robert Sabuda book party...I'm sure you guys would buy up a good 500 books, at least. You have GOT to go to the book store and see one LIVE for yourself. Robert's books have a youthful effect on one's mind, the same way as ice cream, only without any of the calories!

All Clad pieces are starting to come in. It's true... the way to a Hong's heart is through her stomach!
Still haven't managed to get very far with unpacking as I haven't built my shelves though the more stuff I actually get in here, the better the space begins to feel.

Kiki came into town for Sunday and we gave downtown a good walk through and dined at a couple of good restos in the area with Kaly. Then we hit several hardware stores (I'm eyeing shelving, molding, lumber, s-hooks, power tools, and all that good hardware stuff). Can't be too exciting for some, but I love hardware stores almost as much as stationery stores (I secretly covet power tools and a garage-woodshop).

On Sunday, we all went to the RES party which was at the Eyebeam | atelier space and gallery in Chelsea, "a not-for-profit new media arts organization that initiates, supports, and preserves artworks created with computers and digital tools."

Okay, so I opted for the All-Clad over the BED. I'll be sleeping on an aero bed for another month or two till I've got enough to buy myself a bed as I've just made a major pots & pans purchase (rationale is that I will be happily cooking and eating at home and for lunch and it will pay for itself!). Pretty happy about that. Got the stainless steel set and a few accessories too. AND purchased great metro shelving & a butcher's block. We know where my priorities are.

Off to dinner with friends from the AIDS ride who are in town from DC for only a day - Dan and Liz Kohan. Hopefully this weekend I'll get some wood to paint & build my shelves & desk. Met more of my neighbors - have I mentioned that at least half of them are asian? The landlord knows WHO PAYS!

later
h

Just got invite from Uncle Mike for the RES launch party. NYC at the Eyebeam Atelier on Sunday.

Chelsea.
I forgot to mention -
Today I stepped in the elevator with Mario Cuomo so I greeted him. At first I thought, "gee this guy looks familiar" and then Maxine whispered "Cuomo!" to me. "oh yeahhhh," I thought. After meeting David Dinkins, I figure I would probably not know Guiliani if he ran smack into me.

Just went to see Star Wars, episode II with Kaly.
Wednesday night celebrated Bruce's 40th birthday and then had a glass of champagne at Serena in the Chelsea Hotel for the ICI Spring Benefit. ICI is Independent Curators International, an innovative nonprofit art organization founded in 1975. Click on the link to read more about it.

i'm still beat. tomorrow will go out looking for shelving so i can dump out a few more boxes.
gradually moving along.

5.20.2002 11:47:18 PM
With the help of my great friends, I moved!
Saturday morning at 6:45 Ed came by to pick me up at home with a sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich from a Manhassat Deli for me for our very rainy ride to Arlington. Arrive at Enterprise rent-a-car at 11:30, got the minivan, loaded up from Mike & Eileen's, loaded up at mom & dad's, Shawn brought over my CD collection she had been graciously storing, dinner at Two Chefs (steak & cheese, what else?), stayed up late discussing Feng Shui with mom, picked up Mike at 8:30 Sunday morning with Kaly, drove back to NYC, arrived at 1:35. Bruce waiting at the door, Adam and Souris show up, the 3 of them and Mike shuffle boxes to the apartment while I unload & keep watch on the van, Jonathan shows up 15 minutes later, but we were so quick he only caught the last load. My move took a total of 20 minutes beginning to end. I advertised to my movers that I had NO furniture and that it would be quick. But didn't expect it to only take 20 minutes! Lisa joined us for brunch and all is now well. I have lots of sorting ahead of me (I found notes from Japanese class from tenth grade) and lots to trash (notes from Japanese class). This morning Mike breakfasted with Sor & I before driving the rented car back to Arlington. I love my friends.

5.15.2002 11:24:05 PM
Greenwich Village
Finally, an evening without plans. I am beat, have no food in my fridge, and no pots with which to cook. This Saturday I'll go to Arlington for less than 24 hours to grab all my things in four different addresses and drive it back up to NYC. I am beat.
Tuesday night had a four course dinner at the French Culinary Institute restaurant, L'Ecole. Great dinner. Maybe I can become a chef instead of a law firm marketer. Not a difficult decision.

(put back carnegie story) May 9

5.9.2002 2:09:52 AM
Greenwich Village.
Inaugural blog from home. I have a home. Sure, it's without a mobile phone, but it's a home. It's a hundred and twenty square feet (galley kitchen included) and I get another 20 square feet if you count the hallway to the bathroom and closet. I have a cordless phone, quite unnecessary considering any phone cord could reach every corner of the place. Not quite moved in, but sleeping on the aero bed, courtesy of Souris and Silvio.

Looking for a futon / sofa bed (must be beautiful to look at) and a Verizon mobile phone (must not be ugly). I've gotten to the point in my life when I can't own anything ugly anymore. Even a vegetable peeler. It's just the way it is.

5.7.2002
Times Square.
Technology does not stick with me. Last night my cousin Nam-Tan crashed at my new place with me. I got Verizon to hook up my landline within 24 hours (a miracle) but I don't own a telephone so I have no phone. I also own 2 laptops - one with a broken modem and the other without a phone cord to use with the landline. And the palm pilot is of no use since the cat broke it (knocked it off a desk). So I'm left with my fabulous reliable Motorola V60c cell phone which I uh.... lost. Fred Durst's hand me down five hundred dollar phone and I lost it. I was VERY depressed. So now I'm in search of a new Verizon phone, but can't justify replacing the phone with the same model - it's a phone! I could buy 3 DVD players instead. And I don't wanna reprogram 125 phone numbers. Oh, and I lost Ben Stiller's number in Fred's voice recognition recording too. Damn.

I called the Verizon store and said "uh, I lost my V60" and the guy goes "ooooohhhhhh. Do you have insurance?"
"No."
"Ooooooohhhhhhhh. [pause] How long have you had it?"
"Two months."
"Ooooooohhhhhhhhhh. You're gonna have to come in to see what we can do for you."
That bad, huh?
Off to the Tokion party tonight in the lower east side
h.

5.5.2002 9:19 PM
Upper West Side.
Moved stuff into the new place and put the A/C in with Uncle Mike today. Mike said to Kaly and I, "I wish one of you would get married and have kids." I asked him "so our kids can play with your kids?" and he said "No, so I can play with your kids! Mine are getting big!" He's like mom!

I then headed to Central Park to meet up with Kirt & Ed to hang out on the lawn; Italian dinner afterwards. The park is such a perfect place for people watching.

Found some gorgeous Italian designed sofa beds / futons today on JocoItalia and compared to the ugly American futons, I thought it might be worth investing. Out of my price range of course.

5.4.2002 9:19 PM
Upper West Side.
Star Wars exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art - very cool, especially the models. Lots of costumes - most beautiful was the red Imperial guard costume. I'm definitely taller than an Ewok, twice the size of Yoda, and half the size of our beloved Wookie Chewbacca. All the main characters & costumes were there, including models of all the fighter jets, ships, and droids.

I also walked around my new 'hood today and Greenwich Village is so fantastic. Can't wait to have visitors (uh... bring a sleeping bag will ya?)...

5.4.2002 1:20:40 AM
Upper West Side.
Several hours later. Spider Man was funny and fun. Go see it. The line was HUGE and there was a 12:45 showing even. Sor and Silvio got in line at 7 for our 9:30 show (and bought our tix 3 days ago on ticket master) and we weren't even first. We saw it at the huge Loews cineplex in Times Square.

Tomorrow we're off to the Star Wars exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Sunday I meet up with Ed & Kirt if I can, and will try to move a few things into my new place if I have the time.

5.3.2002 6:49 PM
Upper West Side.
All week I've been staying at Kaly's (since Sunday). I've been incredibly busy. Brunch & the KleinReid sale on Sunday, a loooooong week at work (good overtime), Monday looked at some apartments in Brooklyn with a broker, Tuesday signed a lease on a place in Greenwich Village (it's cute, but you can't even imagine how small unless you've ever lived in New York before), Wednesday I worked till midnight, Thursday I did "a very Hong thing and had two dinners" as Lisa would put it. I had plans for Mexican fare in a new place in Brooklyn with Jim, Dave, and Lisa, planned for 7-9. Souris called me at 6 and said "Hani, can you come to Blue Ribbon tonight? We have a reservation for 5 people but one can't make it and we need another person to keep the reservation." Blue Ribbon is one of the best restaurants in New York City (in the USA I dare say) and does not take reservations for less than 5 people and the wait is generally two hours for a table. Their hours are 4 pm to 4 am and Souris managed a 10:30 reservation. After suggesting she knew Kyle, one of my dear old friends, her res was magically bumped to 9:30. Anyway, Sor literally only needed a body to keep the res so I joined them directly from my pork taco, grilled mexican corn, spicy chocolate cake, and lemon cinnamon flan dinner to have an oyster, clam, crayfish, foie gras, marrow with ox tail marmalade, and fried chicken for my second meal. I skipped dessert that time but so did everybody else. Today we had a quick good day at work where our team went out for margaritas that not only cost more, but were larger than our meals. Now I'm off to see Spiderman on opening night (can you believe NY movie tix are $11 a pop?) with Sor's gang (again, filling in to take their extra tix). Last night I was their Pinch Eater, tonight, as Souris says to her friends in today's email
"she is my PINCH EVENTS HITTER.
if we need her to fill a spot, she comes and joins.
otherwise, i wouldn't invite her all the time.
cause she's my sister...
but she knows i love her so that ain't a bad thing."

funny.
So, I've had keys to my new apartment since Tuesday and I have yet to set foot into it!!! That's how busy I am.
Oh, and 57 emails to read when I get home.

5.1.2002
Times square
quick - got an apartment in greenwich village; cool neighborhood, close to all the trains, working fireplace, exposed brick.
teeny tiny tiny studio. but cute. rent stabilized, which is good, but not a steal; it's a fair price by New York standards. Downtown; somewhere around $10/sq foot per month. Oi.

The decision came pretty quickly so I haven't gotten anything together. I've had the keys for two days and tonight I go back up to Kaly's for the night, probably till Saturday when I'll get a few things from Uncle Mike's and Kel's to the apartment. Saturday we go see the Star Wars exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Can't wait.
Last weekend went to the KleinReid studio sale and bought lots from Jim & Dave, who also gifted me a beautiful vase. photo © KleinReid
more later
h

4.25.2002 10:08 PM
Times Square
Working late... logging overtime, and the plus of temping is that I get paid for the OT.
Today is the 2 year anniversary of Ong Ngoai's death and I forgot to eat vegetarian, but then I talked to mom and she said she had fish today. Apparently, the lunar date matters more, and May 3 will be the 2 year anniversary of his death on the lunar calendar. Gotta remember Friday to not eat meat!