My first Saturday back in A2...

...was spent giving in to my basest vegging tendencies.

Morning: Woke up the latest I have this whole week actually, 8.30 or so. Called home to wish my parents a HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY! Their 33rd, which is pretty amazing :)

Morning-ish: Jude and I laid in bed listening to a This American Life podcast via my phone (the Break-Up episode, complete with Phil Collins and The Postal Service is simply inspired...). And tinkering with the Pandora app which I love.

About noon or so: Finally dragged ourselves downstairs for lunch. Hotdogs with a mozzarella/heirloom tomato salad. There wasn't anything good on TV and we ended up watching some strange how-is-this-meant-for-kids? cartoon on Cartoon Network.

Afternoon: The whole afternoon after lunch basically went by in a blur- I remember watching a documentary on the History Channel about Chinese gangs in San Francisco, falling asleep on the couch, and waking up to another documentary, this time about gangs in the military. Drifting in and out of a nap, I think I might have watched about 30 minutes of Save the Last Dance (the one where Julia Stiles is a ballet dancer in Chicago) on mute while Nick Drake was playing on our stereo (Don't ask me why I was watching TV on mute- I guess well-written angsty songs are better than badly-written angsty movies).

Late afternoon-ish: Couldn't bring myself to move from the couch so I just spent the next two hours or so re-reading The Watchmen in anticipation of the movie. Note to self: I shall spend the rest of the night doing this too :)

Before dinner: My half-marathon training today is supposed to be 40 minutes of cross-training so Jude and I decided to bike to Zingerman's for dinner and then bike back (no one said I couldn't use food as motivation...) It was very doable and we wondered why we never thought of biking to the Farmer's Market before. Dinner was delicious as always- pastrami and corned beef on rye with two kinds of cheeses and mustards. Dessert was even better- droolsome burnt sugar gelato and a shot of deep, dark, slurpy Spanish drinking chocolate. It made biking home 1) harder, but also 2) all the more necessary.

After dinner: I think it was a combination of food coma and the soothing cusp-of-Fall weather that lured us back to the couch for more vegging. Channel-surfed between Failure to Launch (I can't believe Jude actually enjoyed parts of this- but only parts...), a hyper-colorized Bad Boys II (which police departments allows car chases with a Porsche? Only in Miami it would seem), and Walk the Line (I *heart* Joaquin Phoenix).

Late-ish at night: Jude's DVD project for this semester- after conquering Battlestar Galactica last semester- is The Wire. He's starting right from the very beginning so it's a looong road ahead. I've been trying to watch with him this past week but jetlag always got in the way. Did sit through a couple of episodes tonight and they were pretty darn good. I've been hearing great things about the series from a whole slew of different people and I now see why. The production quality isn't the best but the narrative is as gripping as they come, and it hits right between the eyes and lures you right in. And for someone whose only image of Baltimore involves Charm City Cakes (thanks to the Food Network) and Hairspray, it was a terrifying refreshing (?) insight into the city.

I was planning on doing some work tonight, but it looks like that plan's about to be shot- basest vegging tendencies don't involve anything productive. Feeling lethargic and drowsy again. I've really been sleeping too much this week. I'm not sure if it's making up for sleep I didn't get enough of in Singapore or I'm still recovering from jetlag, but I'm giving myself till tomorrow to get my groove back. The trip home was really fruitful but now it's time to process all that work and get my data in shape. And since data don't transcribe themselves, someone needs to stop going to bed at 11pm and pull herself together...

The Omnivore's Hundred

Knowing my pornographic obsession with food, one of my office mates, Linda, suggested that I do this meme.

The Omnivore's Hundred (originally from Very Good Taste)

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you've eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht (Although I'm a little skeptical about the authenticity of the one and only version I've had at Shashlik, one of only two "Russian" restaurants in Singapore. I do love the old-world, musky charm of the place though. Enough to not snicker at the kitschy decor or mind the occasionally grouchy service.)
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart (We had so many of these when we first moved here. They fill you up pretty well and for $1.20 each, they're a fairly cheap meal when you're trying hard to save every penny.)
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes (One of the few things that make summers bearable here.)
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (And risk potentially losing my voice forever? I don't think so...)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float (Nothing beats Bill's in Ypsi- deep intense licorice flavor with creamy over-sweet vanilla ice-cream. Yummm...)
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat's milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth US$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (We finally had these last year when we were in Chicago for the Cubs game. Plus the free one we each got because they were freshly fried, Rick, Emilee, Jude and I split a dozen. At 8.00 in the morning. It was a bit of an overkill I have to admit...)
50. Sea urchin (Tried it and will never eat it again- at the risk of being disowned by some very dear members of my family, the texture of uni really irks me.)
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi (And only just last week, where I unsuspectingly ordered a bowl of udon at Narita Airport with one of these pickled plums in it.)
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal (I confess, I've never had a Big Mac.)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine (See here.)
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores (Thanks to Rick and Emilee, I had my first S'mores 2 years ago while camping, so it was the real deal- over an open fire and all... And it was awesome!)
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (Isn't this some kind of clay?)
64. Currywurst (1997. July. Berlin.)
65. Durian
66. Frogs' legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (As whimsical as they all sound, I was a little disappointed to find that at the end of the day, fried dough anywhere in the world tastes almost the same once you sprinkle powdered sugar on them.)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain (Thanks to our dear friend Beryl, this was just one of several Jamaican yummies we had the fine fortune to enjoy, on top of her homemade jerk chicken and one kickass beef stew with dumplings)
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe (Does it count if I stole a sip from Shibani's drink in Montreal?)
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (If you drive on the freeways in the Midwest as much as we do, you'd never want to either.)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict (The best of which was a crab-cakes version at Cafe Penelope in Chicago)
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare (What about rabbit? I think I might have had a bite here in Quebec City)
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish (My first taste of catfish was at Swensen's in Liang Court when I was 15. At my dad's recommendation...)
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (And was sorely disappointed- definitely overrated.)
100. Snake

It was an interesting exercise not just in terms of recalling the different things I've ever consumed, but also the memories associated with them. Try it. In particular, I tag Terri- I just know you'll enjoy every moment of doing this meme... :)

Things I appreciate...

...about being back in AA:
1) My first sip of Starbuck's Pike Place brew: it's still my favorite roast from them. Plus, I refuse to pay S$4.50 for Starbucks in Singapore (after conversion, it's still ridiculous) so my first cuppa this morning was particularly precious.

2) Running in weather that doesn't make me want to pass out after 10 minutes. Although I realize that the cooler air is also thinner (whatever that means) and I had to breathe a little harder than when running back home.

3) Sane driving. (See here.)

4) No longer having to watch the current season of Project Runway via YouTube. Waiting for five videos to very slooooowly load- I'm told by my resident computer techie that there's something called "lag" and videos just load slower in Singapore- just for one episode was only barely worth it.

Things I don't:
1) Throngs of undergrads on the first day of term. I miss my "yay-it's-summer-no-undergrads" Ann Arbor... It's still not as bad as the claustrophobia of Singapore, but after enjoying those couple of months of peace and quiet in May/June, today was not nice...

2) The parched dry grass everywhere- even my beautiful lavender isn't holding up very well. I think I take the perennial greenery of Singapore for granted sometimes and forget that in Ann Arbor, green is something quite fleeting, whether we're talking about long, frosty winters or rainless summers that toast everything into an ugly brown.

3) No yummy home-cooked food. Yes, we cook, but somehow, pasta and casseroles just aren't quite the same as chicken curry, handmade hae cho (shrimp rolls), long-simmered soups, and other lovingly-prepared comfort foods.

4) Our family and friends. Enough said :(

In space, no one can hear you... clean.

[Blogging from Narita International Airport as I wait for my flight to Chicago. Strangely, this airport isn't particularly tourist-friendly, unless you happen to read and speak Japanese, want to buy high-end duty-free goods- who comes into the airport thinking to buy a Bvlgari ring?- crave ultra-sweet Japanese candy, or are looking for kitschy Japanese souvenirs. I'm sitting at my gate sipping an iced latte- which surprise surprise, is called "iced latte" in Japanese... Am hoping to have an uneventful flight all the way to Detroit, i.e. no birds flying into plane engines and the people at O'Hare don't screw up and delay me for some random reason again. If all goes well, I should be back in AA in 17 hours. Cross fingers...]


Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Girl is captured by strange forces. Boy saves girl. Girl falls in love with boy. Girl almost loses boy. The couple reunite. They live happily ever after. Yup, at its core Wall-E is a romantic comedy, pure and simple, and I fell in love with it at first gaze into Wall-E's soulful mechanical eyes.

For the first 40 minutes of the movie, there is hardly any dialogue, mostly beeps and chirps between the two protagonists, but this matters little, and you really hardly notice. Because the same people who gave us a piece of baguette in Ratatouille that looked as real as something you'd get at a French boulangerie have given us an animated (non-human) couple with more humanity than most Hollywood actors. Every nuanced emotion- ardor, annoyance, anxiety- is evocatively conveyed, like a Chaplin silent film or Marceau mime, with few words but a whole lot of heart. And by the last 15 minutes of the movie, I couldn't wipe the tears from my eyes fast enough, as if I was watching a heartwrenching 4-hanky weepie...

For those of you who do not stay through the credits at the end of movies, you have to here. You will be duly rewarded because it's one of the best I've ever seen. It was as if an entire other team of animators was put in charge of the credits and it is its own piece of imaginative art. Wall-E might now be my favorite Pixar movie, from its hauntingly eerie vision of a humanless post-apocalyptic Earth (almost I Am Legend-esque, but more poetic) to the sweet purity of Wall-E and Eve's love story, Pixar shows us that animation is way more than cartoon. It's cinematic art.

Look at what Shure sent me ...

I proudly announced in Sept.'07 that I got a pair of Shure E2C sound isolating earphones. And it has been my go-to earphones ever since. I like the fact that it isolates external noise - this was indispensable for the long flights home to Singapore. Also, I really liked the way the earphones stay secure in your ears no matter what you were doing - my old earphones always got painfully yanked out of my ears when I was at a weight machine or on the treadmill in the gym. And besides, for $39, the sound quality was unsurpassed by any other similarly priced earphones out there.

Hence, I was very sad when the cables of the earphones started cracking. I am not sure what the causes the cracked cables but this is a problem that has been experienced by many and is well documented on the internet. And going by the advice that I was given online, I only had to fill out a web form, include my original receipt and ship my damaged earphones back to Shure. And given the 2 year warranty covering the earphones, Shure will repair or replace my earphones. I did that last week, and guess what arrived at my doorstep yesterday ...



It's a slightly different model than the E2C. The Shure SCL2 is the professional version of the old model. From what I gather on the web, this model features some improvements over the E2Cs - an improved and more flexible cable and an improved driver to deliver crystal clear sound. I have to admit that I don't hear the difference yet, but apparently there's a burn-in period for this earphones. So, I am just running all sorts of audio on it to get the drivers in shape. But thus far, I am very happy with the service I got from Shure and the performance of the earphones. I was a little worried about what Shure was going to do with my damaged earphones as they've discontinued the E2Cs with a more fancy (and also more expensive) SE range of earphones. But all in all, I have to say that Shure's customer service is unparalleled. Thanks Shure :)

Now, if only I can justify the purchase of the SE530 to Serene :)

Virgin qik post :)

I first heard about this service from Kevin Lim. And it was more apparent that qik is a web service I should be paying more attention to when the Prime Minister of Singapore showcased qik in this year's National Day Rally. (Check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvxD8-L68bA) But more than anything, it was interesting to see the live streaming of my video as I was using the qik service. You can check it out below:



This is quite a nifty service. And what's more interesting is that this is a homegrown Singapore startup :) I can definitely see myself using this service a lot more. It was pretty easy to install qik on my iPhone. I am quite sure that qik installs on a variety of other cameraphones. It's pretty cool to stream your videos live ... think of yourself as your very own broadcast channel :)

Serene's presentation at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies

Serene has been invited to give a talk on her dissertation at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. Details of the talk are below. Drop by if you are in the vicinity :)

It's all about the light...

Out in the open sea, with nary a city light in sight, Jude and I have never seen a more gorgeous sunset, a moon more resplendent, or light on the water more shimmering. We had our reservations about going on a canoeing expedition around Ao Phang-Nga (Phang Nga Bay)- a group of 132 limestone islands an hour away from Phuket- mostly cost-related, but I have to say now, it was worth every penny. Because we were in kayaks, it was about as close to the water as you could get without actually jumping in, and the views of the sea, the islands and the landscape was truly breath-taking from that perspective.

After bustling in Singapore for close to 2 months, being away in Phuket even for a few days was a relaxing break, especially enjoying the sun, sand, and sea. We've been away from any kind of coast for so long that just seeing the pristine beaches and feeling the warm grains of sand between my toes was divine. If Jude and I have one recommendation for those of you thinking of visiting Phuket, it'll definitely be to avoid the Patong Beach area altogether (congested and too much sleaze) and just head straight to either Kata or Karon Beach for pure seaside heaven. The whole experience was about as removed from city life as you can get and it was most refreshing. Data, charts, deadlines, proposals, submissions- everything faded away as we traversed the seemingly infinite horizon of the Andaman Coast- exploring limestone caves and lagoons, and dipping our hands into the waters to watch flickering bioluminescent plankton.

Seeking that Alex Garland, The Beach experience? This probably comes very close... :)

[Photos here.]

I think I'm a Death Cab for Cutie snob...

I'm sorry, but just because you know the lyrics to "I Will Follow You Into the Dark"- and only that song- and remember the *two* Death Cab songs from the O.C. soundtrack does not make you a Death Cab For Cutie fan.

Yes you. And you, and you too. Those of you sitting in the dozen or so rows in front of us today who didn't seem to know half the songs in the set. You know who you are- you of the O.C. generation who looked puzzledly at your friend when "Styrofoam Plates" came on; who barely recognized the riotous opening strains of "The New Year"; and in the name of all that is good and pure, I can't believe you didn't sing along to that awesome finale track... You actually looked bored.

Jude and I (together with an ecstatic Sam, Terri and Sam's friend Hannah) on the other hand, had a blast. We thoroughly enjoyed the concert more than the one they did in Ann Arbor in 2005, mainly because they played more tracks from their older albums, or as Jude and I like to think, their *better* albums. I suspect that most of the crowd only got to know the band more after Plans, which is why today's pre-2005 set-list might not have appealed to them as much. I loved it though- "Photobooth", "Sound of Settling", "Title and Registration"- all the stuff they did before they started wearing their bleeding indie hearts so much more readily on their sleeves- each and everyone of them made me so very, very happy :)

And then of course, essentially the one track we paid $70 to hear, Death Cab for Cutie's legacy, the one inspired poetry of a song in all its blissful glory, kept till the very end, every bit as divine as we remembered it to be 'live'. And Jude and I sang every word.

Great job, Death Cab. I'm sorry I ever said you weren't good 'live'. I changed my mind- I'm very glad I saw you tonight :)

Someone say "Lens Envy"?

Over the weekend, Jude and I helped my sister and her fiancé, Piao, take some pre-wedding photos. They're thankfully eschewing the whole exorbitant wedding photography package nonsense and wanted instead, something more fun and spontaneous. So they settled on us taking their photos in the picturesque Botanical Gardens and the pretty- and increasingly gentrified- Ann Siang Hill area in Chinatown. While we love taking photos, we clearly don't have the kind of professional gear necessary for wedding-quality photos. But apparently, there is now a burgeoning business in Singapore leasing cameras and lenses. So all thanks to a Canon 5D camera and a monster of a 70-200 F2.8L lens (plus a couple of our own cameras- hence the very meta photos of the photographers...), you get photos like these:

They're nowhere near professional quality, of course, but we're still quite happy with what we achieved- at least the future newlyweds seem to be :) It's amazing what a huge difference a good camera and lens can do. Shots like this and this would have been impossible without high-speed, paparazzi-level equipment. Which is why for the last couple of days, I've had to deal with a somewhat antsy husband who seems to be going through a bout of rather acute lens-envy-citis for what now seems in comparison to be our very humble and modest Nikon D60... ;)

Kidding around

Finally! After years of posting about Sesame Street and my favorite guest appearances (see here and here), in preparation for the show's 39th (!!!) season, Entertainment Weekly has put together a list of 25 Classic Sesame Street Visits. It's so awesome to see some of my favorites making the list (notably Norah Jones, James Stewart, R.E.M., Andrea Bocelli, and Feist). New ones to love- James Blunt and Telly in a melancholic duet (losing your triangle shouldn't have to be so sad...):



and Richard Pryor's expressive, irrepressible recitation of the alphabet:

My prisoner's dilemma

[As Jude kindly corrected me- told you he knows his stuff-, the situation I describe below is actually not so much the Prisoner's dilemma as it is the Diner's dilemma, which is essentially an n-player Prisoner's dilemma. While the fundamental ideas are the same, the dynamics are slightly different.]

So according to classical Prisoner's dilemma theory, when two individuals are faced with the choice to either cooperate or defect and if their only concern is with maximizing their own interest without any concern for the other person's payoff, then the rational decision is to defect (or "betray") even though each person's individual reward would be greater if they cooperated. This is of course a very blunt and naive distillation of what is essentially a very nuanced theory (which if you're interested, you can go read Jude's 60-page prelim paper...) and I bring this up not to provoke some sociological economics debate about self-interest, altruism, or one's commitment to the public good (again, for that, you'd have to go to my husband).

So last week, I found myself standing in line at the taxi-stand, very frustrated. It was 10.15pm and I had been standing in the queue for almost 40 minutes. I was fourth in line and had been fourth in line for the whole of those 40 minutes. The line had not moved. And there was at least 15 people behind me. Since we've been back, Jude and I have made a very conscious decision to take the train more and avoid cabs as much as possible. Between the rising cost of cab fares and the traffic jams you invariably encounter, it just is more cost- and time-efficient to take the train. But on this Friday night, I was tired and not too far from home so I figured the fare wouldn't cost too much. Besides, it looked like cabs were streaming regularly through the taxi-stand so I wouldn't have to wait long either.

But I was wrong. About the wait, at least. During the time I was in line, I could have taken the train and be home and rested. What I wasn't wrong about though, was the number of cabs coming through the taxi-stand. Oh there were cabs alright, just not cabs that were available for street hire. In that 40 minutes, every, and I mean *every* cab that came through was "On Call", i.e. reserved via phone. For an extra $3.80, you can call the cab company, and any cabs near your location will swing by and pick you up, without you having to wait in line at the stand. Now, there is nothing wrong with calling a cab, of course- this service is a godsend in an emergency or when you're late, but something just didn't feel right in that situation. By calling for a cab without standing in line (or while you were standing at the end of a long line), you are essentially depriving someone who has been standing in line- or someone ahead of you in the line- of a cab that otherwise would have come into the stand, available for street hire. Meaning, if I don't call a cab because I'm unwilling to pay that extra surcharge, I am destined to stand in line indefinitely. Think about it, if you were a cab driver in the vicinity of that taxi stand, faced with a choice of picking up someone who calls in (and earning an extra $3.80) and just driving into the taxi-stand and picking up whoever is waiting, what would you do?... Yup, and that's why you end up with hordes of cabs plying the streets waiting for reservations and never driving into cab stands.

[Photo from mr brown who seems to share my sentiments...]

So this is where the prisoner's dilemma comes in. Sort of. If everyone starts calling for cabs- which will evetually make taxi-stands irrelevant- then everyone will inevitably be worse off because 1) you won't be able to flag cabs down on the street; and 2) everyone will have to pay an extra $3.80, driving the ultimate cost of fares up. So much for an affordable public transportation system available to and affordable by all. However, if people refrain from calling for cabs unless there isn't a cab stand nearby and there are no cabs on the street, then even though we will all have to stand in line, the wait won't be long because cabs won't be driving around waiting to pick up customers who call, and are thus forced to have to drive into cab stands instead.

I know this is turning into a really long post, and a rant of sorts, and it probably sounds a little trivial. But it's been on my mind these past couple of days. Jude even tried helping me work this out theoretically over coffee last night. There is no easy solution of course, and it's hard to pin blame on anyone. As rational decision-makers, we can't help but act in ways that are self-interested. But standing in line for that 40 minutes made me appreciate the possibility of a time when self-interest will neither be a primary motivation or an act of first instinct (who knew that aching feet and a frustrated mind inspires such profundity?...) It's kind of like the Joker's social experiment with the two ferries in The Dark Knight- are you willing to give up the security of self-interest for the eventuality of larger social good?

Tune of the week: Air France - No Excuses

Perfect track to perk-up a sleepy lethargic morning. Pure pop headiness with handclaps, breathless/atmospheric vocals and synth anthem riffs. I don't really know much about this Swedish band, but I do think that Pitchfork's review of the EP is spot-on. The word they use to describe Air France's sound is "Balearic" - named after the anthemic brand of disco/dance that emerged from the Mediterranean islands of Ibiza, Corsica, Marjorca, etc. Despite the fact that my musical tastes have developed rather eclectically throughout the years, I have a real soft spot for individuals who are able to craft blissful pop gems. Perhaps it's a sign of my age, but the over-produced synth goodness of pop from the 80s and 90s are sounds that still appeal to my ears these days.

Speaking of nostalgia, Serene and I were lamenting the demise of Chris Ho's column "Pop Life" in The Straits Times. If you are like me, and grew up in the shadow of Chris' music recommendations, you might want to read his swan song article if you haven't. I've reproduced his eloquently written, dignified but rather bittersweet farewell below.

====

The Straits Times (Singapore)

July 25, 2008 Friday

My musical send-off;
Singer Joni Mitchell will always be in my blood, even as I mark the end of this column next month

BYLINE: Chris Ho, poplife

SECTION: LIFE! - LIFE MUSIC

LENGTH: 794 words

T.S. ELIOT may claim that April is the cruellest month of the year but, to me, the cruellest is August. Come next month, this column of mine will cease to exist.

No big deal I know, but for a sentimentalist like me, it marks the end of this column's 25-year run, a long time for something as ephemeral as pop.

I remember when I first started this column, David Bowie was just crossing over to the mainstream with Let's Dance and Eurythmics were creating waves with Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This.

It was a time when my somewhat academic approach towards writing pop was deemed suitably edifying a perspective to lend credence to the subject, which was rather undervalued at the time. I was just thankful that studying literature in university gave me good background mileage in 'practical criticism' to appreciate poetic words.

It is no secret that my principal love has always been singer-songwriter music. After all, it was Joni Mitchell who gave me my 'great rock 'n' roll send-off'.

With her powerful lyricism and brave experimental style in the mid-1970s as primary influence, I felt I had connected with the very core of what rock 'n' roll is. Very simply, it is about being free with an eye on redemption. It is somewhat inexplicable a vibe, because you really have to feel it in order to know it.

With Mitchell's musical blessing, I felt I could ride with the bravado of Bowie, the punk of Iggy Pop, the decadence of Lou Reed and still take on the wild wonders of New Wave-dance-alternative-hardcore and whatever left-field noise or extreme metal there was.

To this day, I still live and breathe Mitchell (at least, all of her great work till 1979) for she is 'in my blood like holy wine', along with Jackson Brown, Tim Buckley and not a few others.

If my taste in music had, through the years, appeared esoteric or unfathomable, it is only because I am as much a 'trainspotter' as I am a dedicated supporter of great substance.

For what good is following the ever- changing tide of fashion or flavours-of-the- month if one is not blissfully grounded by the subliminal wow of true heavyweights?

Simply put, I follow trends to know what not to follow or buy into, and by 'true heavyweights', I do not mean what the collective consensus deems critically essential for the average consumer.

I have always prided myself in seeing what slipped through the cracks. For instance, I still uphold that Jhelisa's Language Electric is the 1990s' feminine equivalent of Marvin Gaye's masterpiece What's Goin' On. And that Billie Ray Martin's Deadline For My Memories is the unique Joni Mitchell-meets-Donna Summer foray into Studio 54's shuttered VIP-room of dire romantics.

By the way, did I ever tell you my self-propounded theory that Mitchell lost her greatest muse the day she stopped working with bassist Jaco Pastorius?

If all that seems insignificant, I am proud to recall that way before any big-time music rag (read: Rolling Stone, New Musical Express, the like) raved about REM, this column had called attention to the then-unknown band by way of their indie debut Chronic Town.

Not to mention Red Hot Chili Peppers, Los Lobos, U2... Some readers may remember more, but 25 years is too long to now capture in one breath.

And if all the Mitchell-talk renders me limited in outlook, I assure you I have ventured into a spectrum far wider than expected: from Judy Garland to Judas Priest, DJ Hell to Darkthrone, Johnny Cash to Butthole Surfers, Peggy Lee to Dick Lee.

In fact, I am guilty of being a stylistic scavenger hunting down all in search of that X-factor called great music.

Blame me for sounding egotistical, but my biggest regret in not being able to write this column anymore is the thought that from here on, no one is going to bother much about Rickie Lee Jones and Emmylou Harris. These artists, I believe, are now the true torchbearers of the Mitchell legacy.

Or, what if no one here recognises the great music of our own local players - from the late Michael Isaac to the new Max Shanti? Perhaps the world has changed, especially when John Mayer is now 'God' and Tori Amos seems to be the singer-songwriter goddess of them all.

What do I know? Except that this is a given directive of an exit for me in view of life's many changes. In particular, this one you are holding with a capital L and the exclamation suffix.

Well, this Pop Life has no big exclamation to end but a sad goodbye and a trite rationalisation that all pleasurable things do desist.

Relieved of the trite, I shall revel in my treasure trove of pop, punk, metal, country, folk, dance, ambient, jazz and rock to light the rest of my days.

May you be touched by your own Mitchell to seek a pop-life that is both gratifying and redeeming.

Best wishes always from me, an ardent music fan.

Hellboy flashback

Jude and I really enjoyed Hellboy- he almost never watches a movie twice at the theatres but he did with this one. It's a very different superhero movie from The Dark Knight- a happy hodgepodge of a whole bunch of genres, witty dialogue (who knew a Barry Manilow song could be so funny? Oh wait...), and a lovable grotesquery of creatures that could only have sprung from the imagination of the gifted Guillermo del Toro- in other words, all-round rambunctious good fun :)

So as we were watching the credits roll, the name "Luke Goss" jumped out at me. He plays Prince Nuada in the movie and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out where I've heard the name before. Plus, it's not like I could recognize the actor behind all that make-up. It bugged me for a while and then I promptly forgot all about it until a couple of days ago when I decided to revist it again. And that's when I discovered why the name rings a bell. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Luke Goss circa 1988, a.k.a. one-third of the now defunct British boy-band (of sorts...), Bros!! I kid you not! To prove that this is all for real, check out what I found on YouTube- their incongruous "When Will I Be Famous" video:



Talk about aging gracefully (so rare for '80s stars...)- how did the dude get from this:

to this:

to this??

Quote of the week

Decision-making — whether it’s taking out a loan or deciding whom to marry — isn’t a coldly rational, self-conscious act. Instead, decision-making is a long chain of processes, most of which happen beneath the level of awareness. We absorb a way of perceiving the world from parents and neighbors. We mimic the behavior around us. Only at the end of the process is there self-conscious oversight.

From an op-ed in the NYT by columnist David Brooks titled "The Culture of Debt".

An unstoppable force meets an immovable object

He makes Jack Nicholson's Joker look like a birthday clown.

It was a truly demented, terrifying and ghastly portrayal of the character, like some avatar of pure, distilled, meaningless hate. I actually found parts of his performance difficult to watch because it was so frightening. This is a villain who refuses to be psychologized- there is no method to his madness, no rhyme and even less reason for his cruelty, because as Alfred cleverly intuits, he's someone who just "wants to watch the world burn..."

But the thing is, for all the brilliance of Heath Ledger's take on The Joker, I think the media has overlooked the movie's other inspired performance- Aaron Eckhart's. Harvey's bleak descent into Two-Face was interminably sad because you were watching it unfold right before you, as Jude always says, like watching a car crash in slow motion. Seeing the hopeful righteousness give way to ultimate vengeance and anger was like witnessing another piece of of Gotham's continued decay. True, the Joker's failed "social experiment" with the two ferries suggested some hope for the crumbling metropolis, but that he managed to corrupt its shining star casts a pall over whatever salvation Gotham might have hoped for.

At the end of the day, unlike Batman Begins where the focus was more on the seething underbelly of Gotham and the sordid human brokenness of the city, The Dark Knight is about its citizens and what makes them fall apart within. Whether its a senseless desire for mayhem and destruction, the loss of a loved one, or a realization that to be a city's savior is to be its enemy, the movie pushes the boundaries what we expect of and need from our heroes and villains, questions the various shades of gray that separate good and evil, and may have forever redefined what a great comic-book movie is from now on.

I don’t want to kill you. What would I do without you? You complete me... You just couldn't let me go, could you? I guess this is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You are truly incorruptible, aren't you? You won't kill me out of some misplaced sense of righteousness . . . and I won't kill you because you're too damn fun. We're going to do this forever.
- The Joker to Batman, The Dark Knight

[For an exceptionally good article on the various incarnations of Batman and how the latest movie matches up, see this Salon piece.]

Serendipitious find- The Watchmen (2009) trailer

So as I was snooping around different websites and news articles trying hard *not* to read anything related to the new Batman movie, I came across something from Empire about a trailer for the new Watchmen film. Apparently, to capture the same audience demographic of comic-book-to-film fans, the trailer will be played during previews prior to The Dark Knight.

A couple of summers ago, Jude and I re-read the single-release issue of The Watchmen in one sitting, but he's the bigger fan, so this is for him :) Like my future brother-in-law, PZ, said last night, many film adaptations of comic books and graphic novels have become increasingly sophisticated and high quality movies in and of themselves (Batman Begins, V for Vendetta, and most recently, Hellboy II, are perfectly fine films on their own...) This trailer is visually stunning, and coupled with the Smashing Pumpkins' "The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning", the whole experience of watching The Dark Knight- previews and all- looks set to be a phenomenally mind-blowing one!

[click for link to Apple Trailer]

Darkness falls...

[click for an enlarged version of my favorite portrait of Heath the Joker]

Not since... okay, not since I-don't-know-when have I anticipated a movie so badly. It opens tomorrow and we have tickets to watch it on Saturday. I told myself I'm not going to read any reviews or reports of it until I've seen it for myself. Let's see how well that goes.

Oh be still my beating heart...

In a small, windowless side-room stand a pair of costumes. In one corner, hanging from a sturdy, metal frame, is the new-look batsuit, all matte-black mesh and unyielding hard-plastic carapace, the first to allow the moody crime-fighter to actually turn his head. Impressive. But in the corner to its left, draped simply over a headless mannequin, is something far more exciting. Its a tatty, threadbare get-up, a dark-green waistcoat over a grey shirt, with a dark green tie at the collar. Purple trousers hang below and a long, angular purple coat sits on top. The ensemble's completed by a pair of purple gloves and a silver fob chain dangling from the belt. Its part Vivienne Westwood, part Alexander McQueen, part thrift-shop grunge. And its entirely The Joker.
-from Empire Magazine, "Heath has created something quite terrifying" (Dec 2007)

Brought to you by the letter F and the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4

[Inspired by Dark Orpheus's post.]

Jude and I have long been fans of Feist and loved her performance at the Blind Pig when she was in Ann Arbor in 2006. When her video for "1-2-3-4" first came out, we were so taken by it that Jude had blogged about it here. It continues to be one of our favorite music videos, if for nothing else, the choreography, her exuberance and the fact that it was probably all done in one take. Now that's masterful...

Anyways, Feist has now joined the legion of some of my favorite artists who have appeared on Sesame Street. Her appearance is scheduled to premier in August but thanks to the wonders of the Internet, the clip got leaked which is how I'm able to share with you this delightful wonder of her counting with monsters, penguins and chickens! I'm not sure how to convey the sheer awesomeness that is the video except to say that I've played it several times since this morning and my day is all the brighter for it! See if you can pick out the different points at which they've recreated elements from the music video... :)

Things I'm surprised I haven't eaten yet...

Even though it's been only a little over a week since I've been home, there are some things I'm almost outraged that I haven't gotten round to eating. I'm usually militant when it comes to hitting all my favorite food joints within a week of coming back, so the fact that I haven't yet consumed almost all of everything I've been dying to eat this past year is virtually sacrilegious...
1. Chicken rice (!): For the past few years, this has almost always been the first local food I eat when we return. For some reason, it's been 10 days, and I haven't even come close to a chicken rice stall. (Crossing this out thanks to my dearest dad and Yet Con Chicken Rice!)
2. Bak chor mee: When it comes to this dear humble noodle favorite, only the best will do. And nothing says welcome home like a bowl of vinegary, savory, springy noodles with pork and dumplings like Tai Wah does it.
3. Hokkien mee: Hello, where have all the good Hokkien Mee stalls gone?
4. Peranakan food: While it's fairly easy to find or recreate Chinese food back in A2, Peranakan food is a whole other ball game altogether. A fusion of Chinese and Malay cooking, the spices and ingredients of Peranakan cuisine are not only unique to the region, it also involves painstaking steps that are just a tad intimidating. But I do love it so and can't wait to have my fill before I miss it again for another year.
5. BBQ chicken wings: Ask Jude, nobody loves them BBQ chicken wings like Serene Koh :)
6. A good seafood meal from Palm Beach: And not just because it's family... Think delicious, succulent steamed prawns, the freshest fish lightly dressed in soy sauce, and the most luscious chilli crabs you will find this side of South-east Asia. I think I'm blogging myself into a virtual frenzy here...
7. Fish-head bee hoon and har jeong kai (shrimp paste fried chicken): This may not very appealing, but oh trust me, a more comforting combination of tasty soup noodles and greasy deliciousness you will not find.
8. My mom's hae cho (prawn and pork rolls): Ok, this just means I need to work my "but-I-haven't-been-home-in-a-year-and-I-do-love-you-so" wiles more :)

Questions to the drivers of that black Lexus RX and the silver BMW 7 Series convertible

1. I understand that you would like very much to take my parking space after I move, but what good does it do you or I if you position your car in front of the space in which case, I can't get out?!
2. Maybe you couldn't see me from way up there in your fancy, gleaming car, but what is the point of signaling to switch lanes only after you've started to butt into my lane, nearly killing me?
3. Is it too much to ask that you at least appear to try to make an attempt (I'm not expecting a lot, clearly...) to thank me when I let you switch into my lane anyway even after you tried to kill me? (Or maybe you did, and I couldn't see you from way down here...)
4. Why is it that you use your signal indicators with so much restraint but not your horn?
5. Do you realize that if you tailgate me and heaven forbid that I would then suddenly brake with no prior warning, that your precious car would require a more expensive repair than the humble little Mitsubishi that I'm driving?

I hope your driving experience was as pleasant as mine, Messrs "We're-driving-expensive-luxury-cars-and-hence-have-more-rights-than-you-the-little-common-folk".

Home vs. blogging

What is it about being at home in Singapore that gets in the way of blogging? It's almost like I'm uninspired to blog- OK, maybe "uninspired" isn't quite the right word, "unmotivated", perhaps. It surely doesn't have to do with time, since it's been so nice taking a break from work these past few days and just spending time with the family, during which I could have easily found some time to blog if I wanted to.

It probably also has little to do with the lack of things to blog about- I could have told you about my first data collection session with a class of ten-year-olds (which went extremely well, except for one rather precocious kid who kept asking how old I am. Apparently, telling me over and over that I look 20 is supposed to be a compliment- which it would have been had it not been so weird..), or the excruciating heat and humidity I had to endure as I ran my first 8K through MacRitchie Reservoir over the weekend (if I can survive keeping up my running regimen here, I really might be able to survive the Detroit Half). Or maybe you would have liked to read about the fiasco otherwise known as Serene Koh's attempt to renew her student visa? (who still requests for cashier's orders these days?? The American Embassy in Singapore, it would seem...). And then there's the insane storm of a meal my sister and I whizzed up tonight- anchovy-onion pasta, glazed ginger ale carrots, Parmesan-crusted fried lamb chops with tzatziki, and a banoffee pie thrown in just in case we weren't in enough of a food coma.

At the end of the day, I think blogging has become our way of updating our friends and family here about our lives in A2, but since we're now home and a "hey you!", "why are you late?", and "what *is* that you're wearing?" are just a text message, phone call, or shout down the hallway away, it's almost like there's little need to blog. Of course, there are those of you who are now on the other end- our friends stateside- who pop in once in a while to make sure we haven't fallen off the edge of the world. Don't worry, we'll make sure to update as often as we can. Hope you guys had a great 4th July weekend!- I can't believe Kobayashi lost the hotdog-eating contest again- c'mon, dude! Asia represent!- and that returning to the grind of work today has been forgiving after all that partying, BBQ and fireworks!

At last...

I've never hated to be in Chicago. Until 2 days ago.

So I'm home. Finally. After 48 harrowing hours of flights delayed, cancelled, re-routed, terminals mixed up, plane engines ingesting birds (no, I'm not making this up...), sad airport hotels, flights across Detroit, Chicago, D.C. and Tokyo. A journey that would have taken 22 hours (not that *that* isn't long enough in itself) took me close to 50. Considering that everything that could go wrong on an international flight did go wrong, until I was physically holding all my bags and walking towards Jude and my sis last night, I was convinced something else was going to go awry, I would have a nervous breakdown, and then lose my mind completely.

But all is well now- I'm on the same soil as Jude and my family, I did my first session of data collection this morning (I know, why?...) which went extremely well, am having a relaxing lunch at home with poor Sam who has the day off from school because of a bad viral flu, and I think I'm recovering part of the little bit of sanity I lost over the last 2 days. I feel impending jetlag creeping up upon me, but I'm home, and really, *I* could be the one down with the viral flu and I would still be happy :)

I hold a wish for you live - 12th July, 1700hrs

I have long been an admirer of Ricks Ang and April Lee's work as aspidistrafly. Somehow, I always associate their music with my trips back to Singapore. Their music is a little melancholic, nostalgic, ethereal etc. You can check out what they sound like on their MySpace page. Also, check out their webpage for their photographic work too. Love their use of sky ... lots of sky in their photos :)

My favorite aspidistrafly track by far:

aspidistrafly – Stranger, Here is Where We Live


What makes this trip back to SG even sweeter is the ability to catch them live. They are launching their new album "I hold a wish for you" and performing live as well. The details of the event are as follows:

12th July (SAT) @iSHOP (by Club 21), Orchard Cineleisure Level 3
「i hold a wish for you」instore live
LIVE : aspidistrafly
open/start : 17:00
tickets : FREE

Again, an open call for anyone interested in attending this event with me?

Things to do before I leave

1. Clean the house (I know it seems counter-intuitive, but I can't imagine anything worse than coming home in August to a previously uncleaned house plus 2 months of dust...)
2. Go to Trader Joe's to get cake mixes for my sister.
3. Go to Busch's to get Reese's peanut butter for my granddad (don't ask me why- it's the only thing he ever wants me to bring back. It *is* really good peanut butter though, and oddly only available at Busch's.)
4. Go to Zingerman's to get their crazy delicious graham crackers for our parents.
5. Do laundry (see 1. except with unwashed clothes)
6. Weed the garden. We have a lovely neighbor who waters our plants and flowers for us even when we're not traveling, but I would never ask her to go on her knees and pull out the weeds that have been thriving from neglect...)
7. Make sure I have enough reading material for the 21-hour long flight. I can't seem to read books on the plane, so it's usually the NYT magazines, Entertainment Weekly and whatever random magazines we have lying around the house.
8. Try to squeeze in one more run tomorrow. I'm still contemplating whether to do the Detroit half marathon in Oct. (for no other reason that the fact that you actually run across the bridge to Canada, and through the tunnel back, which is kinda exciting...), but if I am, I'm going to have to keep up the running in the heat and humidity of sunny Singapore. I'm getting stronger, but I'm not sure if I'm that strong...
9. Clear the fridge of anything that might turn bad, like milk or fruits (i.e. if there are, my Meals for One tomorrow are going to be made up of whatever's perishable in the fridge...)
10. Oh right, and of course, P-A-C-K, which I haven't done a whit of yet...

Factories, resources and love - Virtual worlds and social networking

An interesting talk by an artist who has been hacking the Civilization IV engine to create a game that makes statements about our contemporary economy. Here's a brief blurb about his talk:

Civilization IV - Age of Empire is a project by Eastwood Real Time Strategy Group (based in Serbia) that explores and simulates the flow and
control of information and capital. Based on the famous “Civilization III” game-engine, it displays the relationships between some of the main
determinants of our global culture - the military entertainment complex, immaterial labor, the pharmaceutical industry and the net economy - to
name just a few.

Civilization IV is a game that creates a socio-economical model, mapping the processes, flows, comparativeness and differentiation in the
market. This model simulates activities of some of the world’s top IT corporations.

The name of the game, Civilization IV is questioning the copyrighting of the word “Civilization” by Sid Meyers & Co. which should be common
for whole mankind. Using of Civilization III engine is an act of appropriation of world’s famous Real Time Strategy Game as universal cultural
heritage.

Eastwood uses the interactive computer strategy game Civilization IV as a medium to express their attitude towards contemporary social
cultural practice and to map and visualize how systems are functioning. Yet in contrast to the “normal” Civilization IV Eastwood chose IT
companies to emphasise the “military” structure in today’s economy.
Eastwood - Real Time Strategy Group is a group dedicated to the strategic research of relations between information technology and cultural
practice. Eastwood establishes platform for understanding of basic principles of information society and wider implications that new social and
class system is bringing. They create and use computer games as a tool
for new visions of art and cultural practice.

About the Speaker
Kristian Lukic is writer, computer games researcher, new media artist, curator. He is director of Napon Institute for flexible culture and
technologies, based in Novi Sad, Serbia. Working also as digital art and culture curator in Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina in
Novi Sad.

Busy in the ole SG

Thought that I might as well keep everyone abreast with how I have been keeping myself busy in Singapore. I am spending 8 weeks in Singapore as part of NSF's East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI) contingent to Singapore. This is a program that has traditionally been conducted with Japan, Taiwan, China, Australia and NZ - Singapore has only signed up to receive students from the US this year. So I am here with 14 other US grad students from all over, and we are keeping ourselves very busy :) To stay updated with the group's activities, check out the EAPSI flickr album that I've created.

For work, I am being hosted by Lonce Wyse from the Communications and New Media Dept. at the National University of Singapore. While here, I will be working with Giorgos Cheliotis on a cultural analytics project studying patterns of behavior on an open sharing and contribution community called ccMixter. Essentially, I am hoping to apply the theoretical framework of "Social Performances" - a theoretical framework that I developed for my field prelim exams - on this data set. Finalized details of this project will be updated in this blog on a later post. While here, I am also hoping to speak to Singapore bloggers and I hope to conduct followup data collection with them. So, I am keeping myself very busy, especially with keeping a 9am - 7pm at the CNM dept in NUS.

Additionally, I will also be involved with a couple of conferences that the readers of this blog may be interested in:

ISEA 2008
This is a large conference that seeks to bring together artists and the innovative use of technology in their work. Lonce Wyse, my host, is one of the main organizers of this conference. And essentially, because of that connection, I have been having great/interesting lunch conversations with artists from all over the world. Highlights of the conference include

iCommons Summit 2008
This is the large creative commons meeting and is happening in Sapporo, Japan. Giorgos Cheliotis, whom I am working with is the chair of the very first research track at this conference. I have a paper accepted for this conference, but it's proving to be REALLY expensive to get to. So I am undecided about attending.

Launch of Creative Commons, SG
Singapore's very own creative commons license will be launched at the end of July. Details of the event haven't really been released yet. But there are a couple of associated events that may interest folks:
1) There will be a panel on Copyright and the Creative Commons during this conference:

http://www.isea2008singapore.org/conference/conf_panels.html#samtani

2) Lawrence Lessig will also be in town to deliver a keynote address about the Commons:
http://www.isea2008singapore.org/conference/conf_keynotes.html#lawrence

So there, that was quite a lot of information ... just in case you think that jude yew is slacking off the summer away in the ole SG ;)

5 years ago today...

If not for you,
Babe, I couldn't find the door,
Couldn't even see the floor,
I'd be sad and blue,
If not for you.

If not for you,
Babe, I'd lay awake all night,
Wait for the mornin' light
To shine in through,
But it would not be new,
If not for you.

If not for you
My sky would fall,
Rain would gather too.
Without your love I'd be nowhere at all,
I'd be lost if not for you,
And you know it's true.

If not for you
My sky would fall,
Rain would gather too.
Without your love I'd be nowhere at all,
Oh! What would I do
If not for you.

If not for you,
Winter would have no spring,
Couldn't hear the robin sing,
I just wouldn't have a clue,
Anyway it wouldn't ring true,
If not for you. .
- "If Not For You", Bob Dylan

Transatlanticism

So sometime in August, we'll be taking my fifteen-year old sister to our first concert together :) Death Cab for Cutie is coming to Singapore and the sweet child is beside herself with excitement! (apparently, when teenagers send you emails typed entirely in caps, that means they're really, really excited...) Jude and I saw them when they played here in Ann Arbor in 2005, but I thought it'll be fun to go with Sam again anyway- I mean, how often do I get a chance to go to a concert with her, and for how much longer before going *anywhere* with her older sister becomes so totally uncool...;)

Even though their new album, Narrow Stairs, has partially redeemed them from the disappointment that I thought was Plans, nothing, and I mean *nothing* has since, or ever, come close to the brilliance and beauty that was Transatlanticism- both the album, and its title track. We had blogged about it here after their concert and till today, after listening to almost everything the band has ever produced, the song remains our all-time favorite Death Cab for Cutie track, and quite possibly one of my favorite songs ever, period. The songwriting is absolutely inspired and the arrangement, pure sumptuous gorgeousness. Listening to it 'live' continues to be one of the highlights of my concert-going experience.

As I was scouring the web for the video for the track, I came across this one. I'm quite sure it's not officially produced or commissioned by the band, but whatever the case is, it is AWESOME! And I mean that. For real. With all seriousness. It's almost weep-worthy... For those of you who like Michel Gondry's visual imagery as much as we do, you'll love this even more- the stop-motion animation is very much reminiscent of his craft, and everything about it just works with the song. Everything. It's genius, really. Watch it, and excuse me while I go sit in the corner and miss my husband way far across the Atlantic...

A day in the life of...

A typical day for the past week or so:
8:00 - Up and about
8:10- Check email. Answer emails
8:25- Breakfast
8:35- Watch the news
[Maybe sneak in quick phone call with Jude]
9:00- Get ready to leave the house
9:15- Out of the house to catch the 9:30 bus
10:00- In the office
10:30- Teach
1:00- Lunch
2:00- Office hours or meetings
4:30- Leave the office
5:00- Get home with desperate need to just crash
5:30- Run/gym/yoga/veg-out in front of TV (depending on how the day went...)
7:00- Make a Meal for One
8:00- Dinner in front of the TV
8:30- Prepare for class the next day/ answer emails from students/ grading/ chatting with Jude online
12:00- Read/watch TV in bed
12:30- Go to sleep thinking of how things are going to be exactly the same the next day...

In fact, this has pretty much been everyday these last ten days or so, except for weekends. I'm assisting in a summer research methods course and because it meets everyday, the workload has been crazy intense. The day goes by in a blur and before I know it, I'm in bed just past midnight and in the morning, the whole cycle starts again...

Thankfully, on the food front, I think my Meals for One have been going really well- no cereal and cold milk yet- not that I haven't been tempted ;) But I've also come to the conclusion that making these semi-elaborate meals for one has become a way to distract myself from the fact that I'm alone at home. Typically, the time between five and eight in the evening is usually when we make dinner, watch some TV together, and just unwind before starting work again at night. Without Jude around, I occupy this "dead" time (because honestly, who *is* productive at 6.00 in the evening?) by pottering around the kitchen, painstakingly finely chopping up mint when bashing them would do, laboring over a time-consuming rice-pudding when I could have had graham crackers with cream cheese, or prepping a fancy salad instead of getting take-out. I figure, it's cheaper than therapy :)

1. Honey-mint glazed chicken, 2. Maple-cranberry rice pudding, 3. Porridge with ground pork and spinach stir-fry, 4. Mango Caprese salad, 5. Pan-fried halloumi, 6. Panzanella, 7. Bacon and swiss chard pasta, 8. Vichyssoise, 9. Toasted poppyseed bagel with cream cheese and pesto

Goodbye lunch @ everyday cook

*sniff* Sadly, it would seem that my favorite place to have lunch in Ann Arbor might be closing at the end of the month :( Since they started serving lunch in April last year, everyday cook in Kerrytown has consistently served some of the most interesting and innovative food I've had anywhere- from Moroccan-spiced scallops on panzanella to duck confit risotto- and what's most important is their commitment to the freshest ingredients and supporting local farmers. A daily evolving menu means that there's something new everyday and I've never been disappointed by lunch there.

According to their blog, they're not able to sustain lunch @ everyday cook because of the lack of funds, and while there is as yet no concrete future plans- a membership system seems to be in the works- it appears that when Jude and I come back from Singapore in August, there might no longer be a place where we can go for that special lunch date, or just something unique and out of the ordinary in little Ann Arbor. In a bid to bask in the lovely glow of everyday cook while we still could, my friend Deborah and I had lunch there yesterday and it was as bittersweet a food experience as I've ever had- we shared the Shrimp & Pork Cakes with Savory Mango Herb Salad and the Pan Roasted Duck with Rice Noodle & Fresh Herb-Citrus Salad, and they were both exquisitely wonderful. By the time we were making our way through dessert- a most delightful Coconut Pecan Pie with Lime Whipped Cream, we were taking increasingly smaller bites, hoping to prolong the experience for as long as we could. That's how sad we were...

I genuinely like the concept, people and food at everyday cook, and really hope that the owners figure a way to keep it going. It would be a pity to let something so special just slip away. For those of you in town who either haven't yet had a taste of everyday cook or love it as much as I do, hurry down to Kerrytown next week- you might only have a week left :( *sniff*

"Intelligence is relative..."

Excuse me, but I think someone just invaded my sub-conscious, picked a handful of my favorite actors, a couple of my favorite actresses, two of my favorite writer/directors, threw them into a cauldron, and conjured up this nonsensically ridiculous magnificence. No *freaking* way... :)

Going solo

I'm not sure about this whole cooking for one thing.

So Jude's on his way home to Singapore right now- probably somewhere in the middle of the Pacific en route to Japan. He has a research fellowship at the university that starts on Monday and since I'm teaching until the end of June, there was no choice but for him to go home first. It's a little odd having the house to myself, and making dinner tonight was especially strange. I literally found myself standing in front of the fridge, wondering what to cook. I came close to giving in to the urge to just have cereal- I almost never say 'no' to Honey-Nut Cheerios no matter the time of day- but in the end just threw various things together and made some fried rice. I make it a point to try to make dinner every night, not only because it saves us money, but the leftovers are an easy lunch the next day. Plus, I truly enjoy cooking for the two of us. But it just didn't feel the same tonight- I'm not sure whether it's because of the long day at school I had, the weird storm and crazy humid weather outside, or I was just plain missing my husband only after 8 hours (can someone say needy and co-dependent?...)

But I have resolved, that I shall look to the next 17 days as a challenge- to enjoy cooking for myself. To make nutritious, tasty and interesting (or at least try...) meals, just as if I were cooking for two. Just because I'm alone doesn't mean I shouldn't take care of what I put in my body or that I should no longer enjoy cooking. And to make sure I steer away from the temptation to have canned soup three days straight or to buy a huge cherry pie to eat over a week, I'm going to start taking pictures of my Meals for One, starting here. Who knows? if I embrace this whole cooking for one thing enough, it might just help a little (just a little) to ease my co-dependency issues over the next 17 days... ;)

The Korg DS10!!!

The Korg DS10 software for the Nintendo DS handheld device will be released in London this Saturday. It's kind of surprising to me that of all the handheld devices out there (from palm tops, phones etc), it's the Nintendo DS that has been getting the most lurve from the developers of music making software. And I am curious as to why ... an online digital music that I follow describes it as such:

The embarrassment of riches that is music software for the Nintendo DS continues to grow.

Also, why are all these cool music devices and software being debuted in London these days? Not enough electronic music makes in the US? Not enough DS owners? Surely I think not :)

I have one nintendo DS already ... do you think Serene will let me get 3 more like the guy in the video? ;)

J.K. Rowling's commencement speech at Harvard: "“The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination.”

(Better quality audio at this link here)

I have to admit that I am rather fond of commencement speeches. My favorite so far still is Salman Rushdie's speech to the 1996 graduating class of Bard College. Commencement speeches, although seemingly a rather hackneyed genre, requires a lot of skill in terms or writing, oration and imagination to truly inspire.

The video above highlights a rather inspiring speech from the creator of the Harry Potter series. She talks about the benefits of failure and in particular the failures that she's experienced personally. You can view the full text of her speech here Choice quotes from the speech are:

There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.
- J.K. Rowling

Birthday!

The Dude's Kaoru Betto t-shirt
Originally uploaded by ghetto of our mind

Well, no one has ever said we under-feed out guests for sure... Two days later, our counter-top does not look any different- piled high with lovely breads, hot-dog and burger buns, bags of chips, graham crackers and chocolate; and our fridge is still packed with dip, sausages, salad, sides, and leftover grilled short-ribs and chicken. Honestly, I was actually surprised we managed to make it through as much food as we did- I probably made enough to feed at least 30 people and everyone brought their own contributions to the party too which meant we probably ended up with enough food to sustain a small army battalion. But it was Jude's birthday and everyone was in a good mood, and so there was much eating to be had :) Testimony to the amount of food that was flying off the grill, Jude and I were so busy manning the grill that we barely took many pictures of the food itself (see here for photos- c'mon, admit it, 3 photos is modest by our food pornographic standards...)

Menu for the day:
- Kal bi (grilled Korean short ribs)
- Fajita chicken
- Rosemary and lemon shrimp skewers
- Sundried tomatoes chicken sausages
- Heirloom tomatoes and orzo salad
- Grilled Brun Uusto cheese with warm honey
- Mozzarella and tomato salad
- Warm artichoke dip
- Dolmas (stuffed grape leaves)
- Potato salad
- Avocado salad
- A mind-boggling variety of sides
- Tons of bread
- Brownie tart
- Banana cream pie (never was any dessert so quickly obliterated...)
- S'mores (we experimented with a fancy version this time, with hand-cut marshmallows, sugared cinnamon graham crackers and 71% dark chocolate- they were fantastic!)

Plus the added distraction of the Wii Fit, Guitar Hero and Donkey Konga, we think good fun was had by all, hungers were heartily satiated- we're sorry if the party busted anyone's diet plans, lost childhoods were reclaimed by many, and one man's 36th birthday was duly celebrated :) Yay Jude!

It's Kung Fu Panda!

Oh come on... how can anyone not want to see this movie? It's a kung-fu panda! With a sense of humour! Voiced by Jack Black! What's there not to love?? We're so watching it this weekend :)



For a loving review of the film, see here.

Have you ever been in love?

I went in fully prepared not to like it, really. I never watched the series on its first run on HBO and while I enjoy catching episodes of it now and then on TBS, I always thought that making a full-length movie out of what was entertaining- sometimes in inspired ways- in short 30-minutes doses was just going to be a prolonged fashion show at best, and a disaster at worst. I know it made huge profits at the box-office over the weekend, but critical reviews have been lukewarm; in fact, the NYT gave it a scathing review (I believe the exact words were: "the movie that she and Mr. King have come up with is the pits, a vulgar, shrill, deeply shallow — and, at 2 hours and 22 turgid minutes, overlong..."

But despite myself, despite all preconceived notions of what I was walking into, despite the fact that there were all of 5 men in the movie theatre (my husband thankfully not being one of them), and despite the fact that there were so many moments in the movie that would have made me keel over and gag from sheer absurd cheesiness in any other movie, I enjoyed Sex And The City. Thoroughly.

I mean, no one's calling this Oscar material, and unless Fashion Week has a movie category of some sort, it isn't going to win any awards. But the movie doesn't set itself up that way in the first place. Sex And The City the movie is what it is- an opportunity to recapture something about the female psyche that the series managed to tap into- hope, some might call it; empowerment, perhaps; desire, possibly, and of course, that elusive, magical thing called love. There were moments throughout the film where there was genuine emotion- sadness even- and there were enough ardent worshippers in the theatre- my friends included- who made the experience feel more like a reunion with dearly-missed old friends than an extended ad for all that is glittering and glamourous about New York (because really, do we all have friends who will help us pack our apartment bearing 2 bottles of champagne and wearing Gucci?)

I'm not saying everyone should run out and catch the movie right now and I still won't recommend it to anyone with dominant testosterones coursing through their body, but I was honestly pleasantly surprised- cheese and all- and you just might be too.

Some people are settling down, some are settling and some people refuse to settle for anything less. Than butterflies...
-Carrie Bradshaw, Sex And The City