Haiku Tunnel

Haiku Tunnel is perhaps more accurate to the story of my life though I've not yet seen it -- about a temp who goes perm at a law firm.

What I'm wondering is... how did I go from living in the tropics and traveling for 16 months before ending up in this hell?
The things we do for vacation days.

Office Space

The story of my life.

start to finish

I happen to be a big fan of maps -- coveting them and reading them, so much so, that my sister just sent me this article. Maybe it has some relation to my maze illustration abilities.

I bet I know you

It's uncanny, but I had two more small world experiences in just about six days.

in the queue

I always get in the long line of things, and at BBB today, I got caught behind an older asian woman who took a good twenty minutes because she was arguing with the cashier about the 20% coupon she used. Nine of the customers behind me went into the next line and they all got through before me. That lucky bamboo might not be so lucky.

of things asian

I took a trip down to chinatown today to get myself a good delicious banh mi thit -- a vietnamese sandwich. I got to the place on East Broadway and the woman says "het banh mi." Bitter disappointment. I could see it all there -- the vietnamese sausage, marinated bbq pork, pickled daikon and carrot, fresh cilantro leaves, and thinly sliced cucumber.... but no bread.

Going from that end of Chinatown -- the much more authentic end and not at all touristy -- I walked along Canal and down Mott, over and along the little side streets. Got myself some lucky bamboo where the guy asked me out for tea or shopping, and asked me for a kiss (!) but gave me a nice bargain despite my soft rejections, and then I headed onward to Pho Bo Ky on Bayard where the people were nice, the service was quick, and Pho done all wrong.

da movies

Check it out. The 2002 New York Film Festival (40th Anniversary). There's good stuff here including an article on Jack.

Under the 'hood

Hung and I spent all day Saturday enjoying strawberry smoothies from the street fair in the West Village, coffee at Washington Square Park, a crepe lunch at Le Gamin with Souris & Silvio, onward to Chinatown (the Bowery so I could find a kitchen table), Little Italy (where Hung stopped in a Vietnamese deli and got some fresh squeezed sugar cane juice), and Soho. We topped off the evening with sushi dinner at Blue Fin and bright night lights in Times Square. Sunday we lunched at the dried up Bethesda Fountain (because of the current NYC drought) in Central Park, and after an anti-histamine, I was knocked out the rest of the day as he left for Boston.

"Hi, I'm Hung"

That's what my cousin Hung gets to say to people when he meets them. Souris and I were sophomorically amused.

Healthy Harvest

Mom's friend's husband decided to plant some corn this year. As his wife had used up all the garden space, he found a small spot to plant his crop, unknowingly planting them over a patch of bulbs... the results are in.



This is for real.

Huh.

I love the country but...typical.

Pure Light

After a year of red, white, and blue, the Empire State building has returned to its pre-attack plain white. Curiously, the ESB has a special lighting schedule that includes colors as varied as black, yellow, purple, teal, lavender, pink, and green. I get my daily dose of colored lights as I step off the subway every day heading home and noticed that it has gone back to white since last Wednesday.

Big Apple Mac

Apple Store, SoHo is open and ready for business. I spent yesterday walking through the streets of SoHo, under the guise of enjoying the beautiful day, but secretly to play with the new titaniums at the packed, recently opened, Apple Store. I spent an hour and a half at a powerbook wherein several people rotated through the laptops beside me, including a mother and her young teenage son (wearing slacks, a jacket and button-down) who was obviously in private (perhaps boarding?) school, telling her that she should buy him the new $3199 800 Mhz G4... and she did. Where do these people come from? Oh, the UES. Seriously though, those G4s are flying off the shelves.

Following Ludwig's performance...

What does one listen to after spending sixty-seven minutes devoting one's ears to Beethoven's tremendously phenomenal 9th Symphony? I can't figure out what to listen to next.

Punny

one of my italian favorites:
"caramella, mortadella, mandarino, bacinella" literally mean "candy, cold cuts, tangerine, small basin"

Translating these Italian words strung together, as in a telegram, you get:
Cara Mella (è) morta Della, manda Rino. Baci, Nella.
Dear Mella, Della died. Bring Rino. Kisses, Nella.

It's a Deal!

I was browsing through apartment swaps and came across this one in Barcelona:
Medieval Castle-palace built in the XIV Century
9,500 SF, 45 mts from Barcelona, for 3 months
asking $1200/month

...uh, did I mention that's about what I pay for my 150sf (including the hallway square footage) single room studio in New York City? I could be living in a castle!!!

un cafe avec Picasso

On a small grassy plot at University Plaza lies a 12 meter high enlargement of a Picasso sculpture, Bust of Sylvette (1934, of sheetmetal), reproduced of Norwegian black stone and sand-blasted concrete by Norwegian sculptor Carl Nesjär. It's between La Guardia Place and Greene Streets just north of Houston and South of Bleecker Street among three I.M. Pei buildings built in 1966, two of which are owned by NYU for faculty, and are among some of the ugliest downtown apartment buildings in the city. Having picked up a cup of joe at Rocco's on Bleecker, I headed that way to enjoy my coffee facing Picasso to start my Saturday morning.

With or without Bono

Live, from Times Square, the NFL Kickoff Concert & Party, "an unprecedented free football and music festival to kick off the season and celebrate the resilient spirit of New York and America" is expecting a crowd "in excess of 100,000" and note that "U2's Bono will not perform at the event." U2 is so great, they had to put that in there... guess I won't go. My sister who works at the Bertelsmann building in the midst already warned me that she had an "escape plan" and directed me to head east instead of taking my regular route home. City blocks are closed all over the place. A mess.

"Live, from New York Ity!"

Passing by heading home from work, I see the "C" in "Radio City" burnt out and I wonder... was it that way for the show?

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.

b. 1932

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.