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

It's done!

1. Half-way mark, 2. Warming up, 3. Coming up that nightmare of a hill, 4. With Molly, Tanya, Will and Baby Lily

I did it! Finished the Dexter-Ann Arbor Run, and in my personal best pace- 5:34min/km. My run time ended up to be 1:10 hr though because there were so many people in front of me at the starting line that I actually started running before crossing the starting line and ended up running an extra kilometer or so (yes, there were that many people ahead of me. Thousands, in fact...) And let's not mention the fact that one thing I didn't account for during training was the fact that someone sitting on the Run committee decided that it would be a good idea to have a hill in the last leg of the race. A steep hill. Like why? What were you thinking? As if running for an hour continuously isn't enough of a challenge for me... I almost passed out after that hill, which I guess slowed me down a little too. But whatever the case may be, I'm just glad I completed and in fairly decent time too :) My feet are killing me right now though, and my toes- for some reason- have been mangled into a blistery mess, but with that is a perverse sense of self-satisfaction which makes the pain worth it.

I completed a 10K-run last week during a training run, but running today was really different. For one, running in a large group is a huge motivation- I tried not to let the people running by affect me but I suspect that that had a large part to play in me running my best time, just me subconsciously trying to keep up. Then there are the strangers cheering you on everywhere, meeting up with friends who were just there to soak up the invigorating atmosphere, those couple of guys playing music for us on their front porch as we ran by, and most importantly, your wonderful friends who were either cheering for you along the way (thank you Rick, Emilee and Ursus for coming!) or screaming your name as you approached the finishing line (Serena and Liz so rock!). And of course, there's Jude who woke up crazy early this morning to accompany me to the run, taking pictures along the way, and being my all-round awesome one-man cheering team :)

I think I'm going to keep up the running routine just because I know it's doing my body good and I don't want all that training to go to waste. Like my sister suggested, maybe a 10K run every one to two weeks just to challenge my body a little, but apart from that, I think I'll go back to 4-mile (6.5K) runs three times a week. Any more or longer and my toes might really just give up on me and fall off... ;)

Food splurge

I don't think we've ever spent so much on food in one day. Rick and Emilee were making a Costco run today and invited us to come along. Since we don't have a membership to the wholesale mega-store and we're having a party for Jude's birthday next week, we thought it would be a good idea to go and see what we can buy in bulk for the BBQ. After an hour or so of walking along aisles of giant boxes of cereal and gallon-sized cans of olive oil, we emerged with:
- 2-lbs of shrimp (for grilled rosemary-skewered shrimp)
- 3-lbs of beef short ribs (for kalbi)
- 3-lbs of sundried tomato and mozzarella sausages
- 1 large pack of baby portobellas (for grilled veggie kabobs)
- 5-lbs of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. We'll probably keep this for ourselves- they're a really versatile cut of meat so we have no worries going through them at all.
- 2 kegs of yummy Virgil root beer. Yes, you read that right: kegs. Of root beer. It was so hilarious we just couldn't resist :)
- 2 bottles of Naked mango juice
- 2-lbs of cheese-spinach raviolis (this will probably feed us for several meals...)
- a large box of stuffed grape leaves
- an entree-tray of Chicken Alfredo pasta for dinner tonight so I can carbo-load before the run in the morning

And then, when I went to get my race packet for tomorrow, I found in it a coupon for $5 off any $35 purchase from Whole Foods. Since we had to return some cans from there anyway, we allowed ourselves the indulgence of shopping at Whole Foods again for the second time this month. With much restraint, we still ended up with:
- 1-lb of white peaches
- a package of Brun-Uusto cheese, a baked cheese that we'll throw on the grill next week and serve with warm honey and rosemary or maybe a fruit preserve. There was a tasting of the cheese and it was served with warm orange blossom honey- soooooo gooooood...
- a jar of eggplant and tomato pasta sauce
- carton of orange juice
- half-lb of bacon (because everything just tastes better with bacon)
- carton of Odwalla Blueberry B Monster juice (extravagant I know, but we told ourselves that the coupon's paying for this one)
- 2 grapefruits
- a rosemary plant. The smell was too intoxicating to resist (there's still a lovely scent lingering on my fingers...) and I figured since I was going to use the stems of the rosemary to skewer the shrimp for the party, it's probably more worth our while to get an entire plant. We're not sure if we're going to transplant it into our little garden patch, but it might not survive the winter and I do want to have the plant last as long as possible. So now, I can have fresh rosemary whenever I want :) Sweet!

Another 8-month wait...

[Warning: some spoilers ahead...]

So let's count how many times I've blogged about Lost ever since we started watching the series: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and now ten (plus nominal mentions here and here). And is it any wonder? I adored Buffy- it will always be my TV first-love (okay, actually, that accolade might have to go to Northern Exposure), but Lost is a whole other dimension altogether (and I mean that in a myriad of ways...). I love that it demands something of me- a kind of commitment if you will- to its intricate narrative and tightly woven plot. If you missed something in Season 1, a conversation you're watching in Season 4 isn't going to have the same resonance; find that scene familiar? It's probably a mirror of something that happened a season and a half ago. A mystery you had long thought was never going to be addressed suddenly unravels before you like you had only seen it last week. Lost is not a forgiving show to obsess over- it insists on your devotion to every minute detail. And I am its willing slave.

It would be pompous to declare that I understand everything about Lost's mythology- honestly, I couldn't care less if I never find out the provenance of the four-toed statue or who/what Smokey is. And I'm OK with not catching ever single reference to Nietzsche, Phillip K. Dick or social-contract theory. But if I wanted to, I could. For an hour every week, a TV show doesn't insult my intelligence and actually expects me to engage with it, demands that I invest myself in its intricacy and complexity. Some people say it's too pseudo-cerebral, that the writers are just making things up as they go along and throwing whatever philosophical and literary psycho-babble they can conjure into the mix. To them, I say this: I'd much rather spend an hour deconstructing illusory references to dead philosophers than watch a man wearing a crown on his head and a clock around his neck pick the next love of his life from a bevy of self-absorbed, narcissistic, half-naked buxom women. Besides, I enjoy a relaxing, no-brainer experience in front of the TV as much as the next person and that's what Comedy Central, the Food Network and Bravo are for.

And even if all the mythology doesn't appeal to you, there's plenty of action, drama and downright good acting to go around. For one, Sun's tragic hysteria in reaction to her husband's (apparent?) death last night was enough to reduce me to tears. And there has never been a more dramatic car reversal when the action picked up exactly from where the Season 3 finale ended and Kate returned to confront Jack about having to go back to the island. Don't even get me started on Sawyer's sacrifice or Ben's all-round awesomeness... And Locke in the coffin?? WTH!!!

See here for an excellent Slate article on why the fourth season of Lost is the best one yet.

Tune of the week: Don & Drew - My sister's cat

Although this is an ad for Podcast.sg, I have to say that this qualifies as my favourite tune of the week :) You can bet I'll be humming or singing this over the weekend (and to the annoyance of Serene ;) )

If you are familiar with Mandarin, you will recognize the tune as a common children's song. 10,000pts to Andrew Crothers for performing in Mandarin, and another 10,000pts to Don Richmond for his heavy metal/rock interpretation of the tune. Love it!

Symbiosis

It's 4 days to the Ann Arbor-Dexter run and Serene Koh ran her first ever 10K today! Yup, that's right, I rock... :) 57:02 minutes, 678 calories and 5:41 minutes/km. Not shabby at all if I should say so myself. And I figured if I can do this in the 3pm hot sun, I can do on a cool Sunday morning. I wasn't planning on running the full 10K today really, but by the time I got to 9.5K, I was like, I've come so far, what's another 500m? And so I did. I'm planning one more run on Friday- which may or may not be another 10K- and I should be ready for Sunday. Under an hour. That's all I'm aiming for.

It's amazing, really, what your body can do when you apply yourself to a task- who knew 6 weeks ago that my body's capable of running continuously for more than 45 minutes? Like my dad says, it's all about slowly increasingly the mileage. If you can do 6K, you can do 7K. If you can do 7K, 8K's a cinch, etc... The other thing that has really helped me is yoga. It's made me a better breather (yes, there *is* such a thing), and as a result, a stronger runner. It's also strengthened my calves and quads (those warrior poses kick major ass!) which really helps too. I've come to look forward to yoga a lot, and it's become more than just about toning muscles in places I didn't know I had muscles to tone in the first place. In that hour of sustained concentration and focus, I become acutely aware of my body and its different dimensions- my posture, alignment, breathing, reach, strength, center, etc, and I find that kind of self-awareness very calming. Plus it's all me- the poses don't rely on machines or weights- it's what my body is capable of and comfortable doing at that moment. I'm not into the more spiritual aspects of yoga (although I love that my instructor sings her ohms) but I have to admit that as tough as it sometimes is (beads of sweat dripping onto my yoga mat probably indicates a fairly decent workout), the deep burn that comes with yoga is actually kinda of cathartic, "cleansing", if you will- both mentally and physiologically- and that's something I find deeply alluring. The fact that my running helps my yoga (it builds the stamina I need to maintain those sustained downward dogs) as much as yoga is helping my running just makes it all the more perfect.

Namaste :)

"...not as easy as it used to be."

[Spoiler alert!- don't read on if you don't want details about the movie. Not that it would make a difference, really...]

[photo from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull imdb site]

It made me sad. Kinda like seeing an old friend fade away in spurts and gasps rather than as a comforting, nostalgic memory of good times past. Until today, I remembered the Indy movies as wonderful adventure stories- always witty, rollicking fun and well, exciting, for the lack of a better word. I'd like to think that I am still capable of being awed, and that it's not age that has made me feel any less for a favorite movie character from my childhood.

Honestly, the new Indiana Jones movie was terrible. Downright awful. And it made me sad. Oh right, I said that already. But it did... I knew going in that it wasn't going to be anything like the Indy movies I had grown up with and loved, but nothing prepared me for how bad it was. I expect more from Lucas and Spielberg. The story was weak, the production quality was oddly uneven- one might even say shoddy, and Harrison Ford really looked like he was going to bust an artery. And inter-dimensional beings? Aliens? Surviving a nuclear explosion by hiding in a fridge? A UFO??!! I lost count of how many times throughout the movie where I went, "Oh, come ON!..."

I do have to say that it was nice seeing Karen Allen again- I really liked her in Raiders of the Lost Ark. And hearing the familiar strains of the theme song always makes me smile- bad movie or not. But apart from that, the movie was just disappointing. It was like they were trying so hard to recreate the allure of the original movies by upping the ante with the CG-effects that they forgot that what made those early Indy movies so great was just good ol' adventure storytelling, authentic action sequences (which you just can't compensate with special effects overload), and a cast that looked like they were having fun and not just doing a job, or trying to revive a career. I felt like I was watching a bad "The Mummy" sequel, except without Brendan Fraser.

Like I said, it made me sad. And I will say that, again and again...

Nom Nom Nom Nom?

Just saw this photo on the BBC news website and thought it eloquently exemplifies the latest in Internet speak - "Om nom nom nom" - a sound of ravenous eating made popular by the Sesame Street's Cookie Monster. Also check out this endearing interview between NPR's Elizabeth Blair and Cookie Monster.

Weekend in Chicago

[click for photos]

I've never done more in 30 hours- attended a baseball game, watched a movie (not too impressed by movie, though), got discombobulated by a city's renovating train system, ate ridiculously good tacos, had a dozen warm donuts for breakfast (not by myself of course), took an architectural boat tour, fell in love with a neighbourhood, tasted mead for the first time, and again, heedlessly bought more books we might not have time to read... a.k.a. Jude and I spent the weekend in Chicago. And as always, it was glorious :)

Tunes of the week - Very 80s

I decided to try out muxtape to share my music online. Check out my very first effort below:

Gong - Love Is How You Make It

Cut Copy - Unforgettable Season

M83 - You, Appearing

Portishead - Threads

The Clash - Lost In The Supermarket

Scritti Politti - Absolute

Titus Andronicus - Upon Viewing Brueghel's "Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus"

It just so happens that the music I am listening to happens to be from the 80s or very inspired by it. Can't help it ... it's the era that I spent my formative years in :) Also, it just so happens that the indie kids these days are in love with all things 80s. So I can't complain. Anyway, to listen to the above tracks, just head on to this URL:

http://jyew.muxtape.com

Validation

So I defended my dissertation proposal on Friday. Finally. Although "defending" is probably too self-important a word; it really was more of a chat, honestly. In fact, one of the nice things that my adviser said to me after the meeting was how it was more of an intellectual discussion between four colleagues than it was me trying to convince three professors why my dissertation topic is worth spending the next year and a half on. The thing is, ever since I decided on my research topic almost two years ago, I've been pretty much on my own with this study. It's a novel way of researching national identity, particularly because I'm working so closely with young children, and the interdisciplinary nature of my work isn't always of the kind that is done in my school; which means besides my professor and Jude, there are few people I share thoughts about my work with.

But on Friday, I was forced to pull my ideas into a coherent whole and present it to a group of people whose hands hold my academic future. I had to justify why this research is important not just because I say it is, but also as a significant contribution to the field of education, political science and childhood sociology. It wasn't a public session, but it was the first time I was presenting my work formally to people who weren't bound by any reason to have to be nice to me. In fact, a dissertation proposal defense was literally designed for you to "defend" your work against attacks on its merit. To say that I was nervous is an understatement. Apart from fretting about what I was going to say, I also spent half and hour figuring out what outfit to wear- the first time I've ever done that since we moved here. In fact, the last time I worried so much about what to wear out of the house was our wedding...

At some point 15 minutes into the meeting though, something about the tone of the meeting changed, and I think that's when I began feeling like it became more of a chat than a defense. I was showing my committee some pictures I had collected from children when I was home in Singapore in summer last year, and sharing some preliminary findings I had to support my study. One of them sat back in her chair, took off her glasses and almost sighed. What she said next, I will carry with me as inspiration during those moments over the next year and half where I will invariably feel like giving up:

"And that, Serene, is what you will tell Terry Gross when she interviews you about your book on NPR."

At that moment, my adviser beamed at me with so much pride, it was as if I had finished writing my dissertation already. She didn't say a Pulitzer or a Nobel, but she didn't have to say anything to begin with. And Fresh Air is good enough for me :) It felt quite wonderful, really. To be validated about something you've carried almost as your own private precious possession for so long. This is an original piece of work, my contribution to academia, me putting out into the ether something that did not exist before. And that people other than myself and those closest to me think that it is valuable work too was at that moment a little startling to me. Throughout the next hour or so, my committee was nothing but enthusiastic and encouraging. They seemed genuinely excited about my work and I remember, if nothing else, feeling a vague sense of euphoria :)

I'm skipping a little ahead of myself, of course- I haven't even started data collection for the study yet. But that feeling- this feeling I have right now- is what I was hoping to have, but didn't expect to really achieve when I first settled on this topic. A kind of strange stewardship, if you will, over my work. With the encouragement and support I've been getting from Jude, my friends and family, and now validation from my committee, I'm truly inspired to craft the best work I'm capable of, and put it out there. It's not going to heal the world, make it a better place, *for you and for me and the entire human race*, but it'll be my small contribution. And maybe, that's enough for now.

Sad Kermit

My jaws are aching. I almost peed in my pants. And I almost spit coffee all over my computer. All thanks to Dark Orpheus and Sad Kermit.

Honestly, this is one of the most brilliantly funny things I've come across in a while (although I'm sure that was not the original intent of the creators). And these people are clearly very talented too, so it's not like funny for funny's sake. It's Kermit re-visioned as an emo, melancholic, acoustic guitar-playing manic-depressive. Basically, it's Kermit as Nick Drake, if you will. This ain't no Rainbow Connection, people. In fact, if you go to the MySpace page, you'll see "Rainbow Disconnection" (the original played in morose, minor chord. You realize how sad the lyrics actually are and start wondering how it could ever have been sung as a happy song to begin with...) My particular favorite is "Creep"- I only narrowly averted the potential caffeine-induced computer disaster because of it. Thom Yorke would weep.

Sad Kermit also does Elliot Smith's "Needle in the Hay" and parodies this suicide scene from The Royal Tenenbaums.

I wish I was special
You're so f***ing special
But I am green
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here
I don’t belong here
- Sad Kermit doing Radiohead's "Creep"

The Dark Knight- new trailer

Have I mentioned how much I'm waiting for the movie to open? Have I? Have I? Oh right, I have.

[click poster for new *freaking awesome!* HD trailer]

If Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker is as good as these clips suggest — and my brain starts popping every time I see his deliriously committed, smeared-makeup personification of pure, nut-job Evilness — then we’ve got a potential Best Supporting Actor nominee that will be much more than just a sentimental gesture to a cherished, departed actor.
-Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly

First weekend off

For the first time in months (except that weekend when we drove to Wisconsin), I took the weekend COMPLETELY off work- from 3.30pm Friday till right now (approx. 11.38pm EST Sunday), I turned on my computer only to check my email (without replying to any), to write a blog post about Leopold's, and to play Scrabulous.

Friday
- Met Rick and Emilee after school to go the opening sale at the new REI in A2. Jude got himself a sweet pair of winter boots at 20% off. Nice score!
- Had deliriously good cheesy biscuits at Red Lobster. Would go there just for the biscuits alone. Searched online for replica recipe- apparently, Bisquick is key...
- Watched Iron Man. Cheesy plot but whiplash script. Robert Downey Jr. was only one worth watching. He was clearly just acting himself. Note to self: witnessing beginning of (empowered) women-free zone, otherwise known as the summer movie season.

Saturday
- Woke up early (unheard of!) for 7K run. 3K more to target. Training's been going well. Feeling stronger, but a little hard maintaining the under 6-minute/K pace.
- Made buttermilk pancakes and bacon for brunch- had to make run worthwhile.
- Watched mindless Saturday afternoon TV.
- Napped.
- Played Guitar Hero for a couple of hours (Beat Slash at Battle and we played "Welcome to the Jungle" together"- I think we rock...)
- Took a walk to the Asian grocery store for a bottle of black vinegar. And Thai instant noodles. Yumm...
- Got a visit from my friend, Deborah her husband, Jonathan who are thinking of moving into family housing in the Fall. Drank root beer and talked about noisy vs. saintly neighbours.
- Joined Libby, Bill, Jolie and Adrienne for dinner in Dexter. Thank you for some good food, North Point- we will be back.
- Met Dan at Leopold's where we bid farewell to the pub while enjoying the phenomenal live performance of Great Lakes Myth Society.
- Blogged about the performance.
- Fell asleep to re-runs on Comedy Central.

Sunday
- Woke up to empty bed and remembered that Jude's had left for Metro Grand Spring Tour, a 25-, 40- or 60-mile bike ride through the Metro Parks. I was just too much of a wimp to wake up early two days in a row to exercise. Go Jude!
- Made up for not going to the MGST by biking to the gym for resistance training. Note to self: go to the gym on Sundays more- no nubile female undergrads to make you feel fat and no one to fight you for weights.
- Had leftovers from dinner for lunch. North Point- not just good, generous too.
- Enjoyed the gorgeous sunny day by going downtown for a bite with Jude because apparently, biking 25-miles makes a man hungry ;) Tried Eastern Flame on Ashley and Liberty. Definitely not going back.
- Supported local merchants (or so we told ourselves) by buying a shirt from Sam's Clothing Store and a new happy shower curtain from Acme Mercantile.
- Visited the new Two Wheel Tango on Jackson (told you we were supporting local merchants today). Jude needed to switch his trail tires to street tires since he realized he was now doing more road biking. Will see how much he likes his new tires before deciding whether to switch mine out too.
- Spent an hour in Target buying random things even though only planned on getting a box fan in anticipation of crazy hot summer to come. Things that ended up in our cart: box fan, pack of running socks, contact lens solution, 3 cans of soup, pack of frozen cod, and four-pack of pomegranate Izze.
- Napped (I love that I guiltlessly napped two days in a row...)
- Ate dinner in front of TV.
- Watched the George Lopez special on Comedy Central and fell over ourselves in laughter :)
- Blogged

I might just make this an early night and go to bed before 1am. And that would really mean I took the weekend off! :)

Last call @ Leopold's

Jude and I bid farewell to a good friend tonight. A friend that's been with us through countless birthdays, grad student visiting days and orientations; whose generous picnic tables will be sorely missed for "research meetings"; whose phenomenal jukebox plays better music than most radio stations we know; and it was the place where I had my first delicious- and till now, only- Pisco. Todd Leopold announced in February that Leopold Brothers is leaving A2 for Denver:

We’re moving our distilling operations to Denver, Colorado this spring, and closing our bar in Ann Arbor at the start of summer.

Our lease expires in the summer, and shockingly (note heavy sarcasm), our landlords asked for an obscene amount per month in rent, so we’re done. This move has zero to do with the economy, or sales levels, as we are coming off of our strongest year of sales at the pub since we’ve been open. We moved here in 1998, and since that time our rent has tripled, and our new landlords want even more….because, of course, that’s what the market will bear.

I hope to run into you all before we leave, and I wish Ann Arbor the best. The business climate isn’t one that we can survive, however.
- taken from ann arbor is overrated

To send the beloved brewpub off with a bang, there will be a performance there every weekend throughout the month of May. We were lucky today to bask in the boisterous awesomeness that is Great Lakes Myth Society, a local band made semi-big. When Leopold's first opened almost ten years ago, they were among its first regular customers and began playing shows there thereafter. So it was rather apt for them to start off the big farewell to this Ann Arbor institution.

Goodbye Leopold's. We'll miss you...

Swallowing clouds

As part of Jude and Serene's ongoing effort to recreate all things we love to eat from home, we made wontons tonight. The schizophrenic Michigan weather turned chilly this weekend and the temptation of a steaming bowl of dumplings and noodles was too hard to resist. Wonton noodles are a dime and dozen in Singapore, but as with all foods from home, there are either hard to find here in Ann Arbor, or what we have isn't very good. A teeny pinch of meat in thick, floury wrapper, floating lifelessly in of-dubious-origin broth is not wonton soup, people. On a night like tonight, I had visions of succulent dumplings bopping in a broth richly flavored with Chinese wine and ginger. And so, that's what we had for dinner :)


Homemade wontons are just yummy. They take some work, but these little gems are worth it. Slightly translucent and slippery as they slither down your throat, they manage to be succulent, delicate, and satisfying all at the same time.

I've written before about the lyricism of the Chinese language, and today, as we tucked into our steaming bowls of wonton noodle soup, I am reminded again of how beautiful and evocative my mother tongue can be. The word "won 云 ton 吞 " translates literally into "swallowing clouds"- perfectly apt for these comforting morsels of dumpling goodness :)

Happy Earth Day!

To remember Earth Day today, here's an excerpt from food activist, Alice Waters' latest book, "The Art of Simple Food". Jude and I wish we could heed all her exhortations here, but we can only try. It's difficult on a grad student budget which doesn't allow us to buy organic as much as we'd like, and living in a part of the country where it's too cold 6 months of a year for local/community farming to be very viable. Still, as both of us become increasingly conscious of where our food comes from, how it's grown and reared, and its larger implications for the environment and economy (we've just been talking about the documentary, King Corn, that talks about the pernicious effects of genetically modified corn on our environment, our health, and our social fabric), these are points of inspiration and sound advice to keep close.

Eat locally and sustainably.
Learn where your food comes from and how it is produced. Seek out a diverse variety of vegetables and fruits from small, local producers who take care of the land. Buy eggs, meat, and fish from producers whose practices are organic, humane, and environmentally sound.

Eat seasonally.
Choose food in season. Even where the growing season is short, organic gardening and farming can extend it: Greens can be grown in cold frames and greenhouses, and there are always local foods that can be stored, dried, and canned for the winter months. Eating seasonally inspires your menus, gives you a sense of time and place, and rewards you with the most flavorful food.

Shop at farmers markets.
Farmers markets create communities that value diversity, honesty, seasonality, locality, sustainability, and beauty. Get to know the people who grow your food. Think of yourself as a partner with the farmers, learning from them and working with them.

Plant a garden.
It is deeply satisfying to eat food you have grown yourself, in your own backyard or in a community garden. Even a pot of herbs on your windowsill can transform your cooking and connect you to the changing seasons, as can foraging for wild foods and harvesting fruit from farms that allow you to pick your own. Learn what the edible landscape has to offer.

Conserve, compost, and recycle.
Take your own basket to the market. Reuse whatever packaging you can. Keep a compost bucket nearby when you cook to recycle kitchen scraps. The more you conserve, the less you waste, the better you feel.

Cook simply, engaging all your senses.
Plan uncomplicated meals. Let things taste of what they are. Enjoy cooking as a sensory pleasure: touch, listen, watch, smell, and, above all, taste. Taste as you go. Keep tasting and keep practicing and discovering.

Cook together.
Include your family and friends, and especially children. When children grow, cook, and serve food, they want to eat it. The hands-on experience of gardening and cooking teaches children the value and pleasure of good food almost effortlessly.

Eat together.
No matter how modest the meal, create a special place to sit down together, and set the table with care and respect. Savor the ritual of the table. Mealtime is a time for empathy and generosity, a time to nourish and communicate.

Remember food is precious.
Good food can only come from good ingredients. Its proper price includes the cost of preserving the environment and paying fairly for the labor of the people who produce it. Food should never be taken for granted.

[Excerpted from “The Art of Simple Foods: Notes, Lessons and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution” by Alice Waters]

Trailer for King Corn:

Yeast- I have overcome!...

So for a long time, I avoided the matter entirely. If I happened upon a recipe that called for yeast, I simply skipped ahead to another. The word "yeast" was synonymous with "stop," or "dream on, lady." I guess you could say that yeast was like the cute guy in junior high: the one with great hair, the one who looks like heartbreak waiting to happen. To spare yourself the sure humiliation, you decide to give him a wide berth, to only stare from afar. But then, when he sits down at your lunch table, instead of striking up a conversation, you cower in your beef stew. That was me with yeast.

But then, you know, there was this pesky business of the cinnamon roll. Namely, that I wanted one.
-Molly Wizenberg (a.k.a. Orangette), Bon Appétit

So that was me on Saturday. Well, Friday specifically. I really wanted to make sticky buns, both because I was craving one- really craving one- but also because I had promised to bring some to tea with our friends, the Cooks and Cooneys. I had initially thought I could take the coward's way out and use frozen bread dough. Because why?

Yeast intimidates me.

I've heard too many horror stories from friends who bake about all that can go wrong with yeast- not rising, being temperamental, killed by water that was too cold or too hot- all imaginable disasters a baker could conjure. Plus, I'm not a baker. I'm not precise when I cook. What do you mean 5 oz by weight? Can't I just use a cup measure? When you say half a tsp of salt, is that a pinch? My sister's the baker in the family, the one with the patience, precision and thoughtfulness. I'm the one who goes, Oooh, let's throw all this together and see what happens! I wonder what happens if you put orange zest in here? With the pork.

Oh, and then there's that tiny thing of not having a stand-mixer. I confessed that at dinner in front of two friends who are avid cooks and they literally looked at me in disbelief. The idea that I would even contemplate making bread without a stand-mixer. Say it isn't so! But oh yes indeed. I couldn't find frozen bread dough at the store (I couldn't be a coward even if I wanted to) and so if I wanted to make some kick-ass sticky buns, I was going to have to do it from scratch.

And so I did.

It was an incredibly elemental experience, this whole making your own bread business. I kneaded everything by hand, which was quite wonderful actually. There is something pleasurably soulful about turning flour, eggs and milk turn into tender, voluptuous dough with your own hands. And don't even get me started about how unbearably good the house smelled as the buns were baking- a heady fragrance of cinnamon, orange and brown sugar. Hours after we came home, there was still a delicious, lingering scent. And the final product- better than I could have hoped for, thankfully. Trust me, taking that first bite of your own homemade ooey, gooey cinnamon bun- still warm- is as close to baking heaven as you can get...

This just might make a baker out of me yet :)

[Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes and Joanne Chang of Flour in Boston.]

"Run, Serene, run..."

Last month, I signed up for the annual Dexter-Ann Arbor Run coming up in June. For a while now, I've wanted to train for a marathon- a little inspired by my dad, sis and best friend who've all done competitive races. I figured this is the fittest I'll probably be in my life and if I don't at least start trying to challenging myself a little more now, it's never going to happen. But being the wuss that I am, I thought I'll go easy on myself by registering for the 5K and see how that goes before trying something longer. Running the distance wasn't the challenge- I run close to that on my regular runs already anyway- doing it under 25 minutes is, or so I told myself. So I've been pushing myself a little harder everyday I run and I've made some progress, but there's just this threshold at about 5:10/K that I just can't seem to break. Plus the nerves in my feet have been tingling painfully these past weeks after every run, not to mention the fact that I almost passed out from running three days in a row yesterday...

And then I spoke with my dear best friend on the phone and she mentioned that perhaps the pain has something to do with the fact that really, at our age, our body can only be pushed that far before it retaliates. Not that we're old, but because I haven't run at those speeds till last month, and so my body's just not used to the "abuse", so to speak. That in the long run- pun fully intended- it might be more beneficial to run long distances slowly, than short distances fast- less wear and tear on the joints, muscles, and nerves.

And so, despite an (un)healthy amount of uncertainty about whether or not I can actually complete the race and some anxiety over having enough time from now till June 1 to train properly, I transfered my registration from the 5K to the 10K race. Like my friend, Stella, said, why do anything half-assed? If I'm going to run, I'm going to *run*. I've planned my first non-stop 6K for tomorrow. I'm also closing my eyes, saying (actually, whimpering, more like it...) a prayer, and crossing and fingers- let's hope I don't come to regret this... ;)

Food Pornography

So, with the photo of the buttermilk drop biscuits I made for dinner last night, our Food Pornography set on Flickr has officially reached 500 pictures! For those of you who follow our Flickr account, you'll know that Jude and I are as obsessive about documenting our food experiences as we are indulging in them. We have a ways to go before perfecting the art of truly stunning food photography, but thankfully, our trusty Lumix has a Food mode which helps :) The aim is to ultimately go full manual, but despite my dear husband's best efforts, I've just never been able to remember all the different settings on the camera. That or I'll just have to wait till we save up enough for a digital SLR and then I'll be inspired to play with as many of the light, flash and aperture settings as I can possible handle.

Till then, here's just a sample of some of my favorite of our food photos in all their graphic, obscene, delectable glory!


1. Fried bread (ham chee paeng), 2. Creamy crab, 3. Cannoli from Mike's Pastry, 4. Tempeh tauhu goreng, 5. Bean sprouts ("tau gay"), 6. Food Symmetry, 7. Dusted with powdered sugar, 8. Adobo, 9. New mac & cheese recipe, 10. Roasting sausages with grapes, 11. Jude's Wagyu skirt steak, 12. Sushi in auto mode, 13. Laksa!!! @ Les Amis, Botanical Gardens

What you've got to realize is that the clever cook puts unlikely things together, like duck and orange, like pineapple and ham. It's called 'artistry'. You know, I am an artist the way I combine my business and my pleasure: Money's my business, eating's my pleasure and Georgie's my pleasure, too, though in a more private kind of way than stuffing the mouth and feeding the sewers, though the pleasures are related because the naughty bits and the dirty bits are so close together that it just goes to show how eating and sex are related.
-Albert, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover

Tune of the week: M83 - Graveyard Girl

OMG you don't know how much this track is hitting the spot right now! I've been tracking French musician, M83 (aka Anthony Gonzalez), through his past two albums (Before the Dawn Heals Us & Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts). Before, his music were dense noisy pieces that owed a lot to the synthesizer pop of the 1980s. But with his new album, Gonzalez lightens up a whole lot and takes on a different side of the 80s - the side that John Hughes teen dramas inhabit. I really connected with this description of the album offered up by Pitchfork:

The album has the same nostalgic sparkle as Hughes' films, a soft-focused mythology of eternal summers and young love. In the liner notes, Gonzalez dedicates it to "all the friends, music, movies, joints, and crazy teachers that made my teenage years so great!"

As much as I hate to admit it, I used to love John Hughes' movies. Especially Some Kind of Wonderful - it had all the right elements of teen angst, first loves and the "I want to be taken seriously but I don't know why I am doing these stupid things" theme so characteristic of teenhood. I know that Hughes' movies can sometimes be cheesy and predictable and that I might be waxing lyrically and being a tad bit too nostalgic. But you have to admit that this M83 song and video transports you back to the era when Hughes' movies reigned. And this song is something that would have been so playing on my Sony Walkman ;)

Some Kind of Wonderful trailer (and with all the classic lines no less):

Tune of the week: The Thermals - Returning to the Fold

It's that time of the week when one needs a track like this to put some spunk into a lethargic afternoon. And also just because it's a rooftop performance by Portland, OR's The Thermals playing a track from their 2006 album "The Body, The Blood and The Machine". Plus, I wanted to try out the new Pitchfork TV service :)

Young @ Heart

[Update: New York Times review here.]

[click for trailer]

I had seen the trailer for this a while ago and made a mental note to catch it when it opens in Spring. I've heard a little about this rocking New England senior citizen chorus before and was kinda excited that someone had made a documentary of them. I was reminded of it again when I saw this article in the NYT yesterday about the upcoming movie and so did a little poking around to see if I could videos of them online. Oh boy, are they wonderful! There is something so delightful about seeing grandmas and grandpas rocking out to The Ramones and The Clash :) And these folks have got spunk and spirit in large doses for sure. Especially when it comes to performing rock songs that they themselves might have told their children to turn down back in the day, like "I Wanna be Sedated" by The Ramones:



or (and Jude's going to love this) Sonic Youth's 'Schizophrenia':



But with all that joyousness, there's also a level of poignancy and sadness to the documentary that I think is quite palpable. According to the NYT article, they actually "lost" a few of the troupe's members during the making of the documentary. When the troupe conductor makes a joke about kidney stones in the trailer, you get a sense that kidney stones might be the least of many of their physical concerns. Which is why I say to watch them perform Coldplay's "Fix You" with caution:



By the time I was done with this, my lunch was decidedly soggier and my face was streaked with tears. I adore Chris Martin, but I'm sorry, dude, what this cover lacks in technical perfection, it more than makes up for with a whole lot of heart. When that old man, Fred Knittle, started singing, I literally felt a shiver go through me and I couldn't stop crying till it was over. You can almost feel the hush cast over the concert hall. Apparently, this song was intended to be a duet between Fred and another chorus member, Bob Salvini. Sadly, Bob died of a heart attack and it was left to Fred to carry the song on his own. There are supposed to be some very moving scenes in the film where we see Fred rehearsing alone soon after Bob's death. This is powerful, beautiful stuff, people...

Really.

"I am Alexander Supertramp!"

Yes, hiking through Alaska. Yes, gorgeous. But please, bring a map and a cellphone. And stay away from the purple plants.

Oh, and Hal Holbrook, you broke my heart, you dear old man... *sniff*

. . . each day mankind and the claims of mankind slipped farther from him. Deep in the forest a call was sounding, and as often as he heard this call, mysteriously thrilling and luring, he felt compelled to turn his back upon the fire and the beaten earth around it, and to plunge into the forest, and on and on, he knew not where or why; nor did he wonder where or why, the call sounding imperiously, deep in the forest.
- Jack London

Placeholder meme

Until something blog-worthy happens in our lives... :)

If your life had a soundtrack, what would the music be?

1. Open your iTunes library
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool…

Opening Credits
"The Greatest"- Cat Power (The Greatest)

Waking Up
"Good As Gold (Stupid as Mud)"- The Beautiful South (Carry On Up the Charts)

First Day of School
"Major Label Debut"- Broken Social Scene (Broken Social Scene)

Falling in Love
"Twilight Chases the Sun"- Furniture (Twilight Chases the Sun)

Breaking Up
"Until the Day is Done"- R.E.M. (Accelerate)

Prom
"What the World Needs Now"- The Carpenters (Scrubs Soundtrack)

Life's Okay
"Piazza, New York Catcher"- Belle & Sebastian (Dear Catastrophe Waitress)

Mental Breakdown
"Every Wall Your Own"- Chris Bathgate (A Cork Tale Wake)

Driving
"California One Youth and Beaut"- The Decemberists (Castaways and Cutouts)

Flashback
"Dummy Song"- Louis Armstrong (You've Got Mail Soundtrack)

Getting Back Together
"1995"- The Radio Dept. (Lesser Matters)

Wedding
"Brick"- Ben Folds Five (Whatever and Ever Amen)

Birth of a Child
"Lo Boob Oscillator"- Stereolab (High Fidelity Soundtrack)

Final Battle
"One Fine Day"- Natalie Merchant (One Fine Day Soundtrack)

Death Scene
"All of Your Days Will be Blessed"- Ed Harcourt (From Every Sphere)

Funeral Song
"A-Punk"- Vampire Weekend (Vampire Weekend)

End Credits
"Haiti"- Arcade Fire (Funeral)