in case anyone's wondering, i'm still alive...i've been incredibly busy...more later...
...ouch...i need a new neck...i totally fucked up my current one last night by sleeping weird...i think what i did was that instead of sleeping on TOP of either one of my pillows, i slept with my head (and hence my neck) IN BETWEEN them, which is a total waste of my perfectly good and damn expensive space age foam pillows...that's what i get for sleeping in the middle of the bed, instead of sticking to one side or the other...it also doesn't help that i spent the entire afternoon on my presidents day holiday hunched over my laptop transferring files from my website to my new hosting provider...yes, i'm finally bidding yahoo goodbye if i can figure out how to switch that domain registry thingie...i now get 700MB/month for $20 through insider hosting, which is plenty for even me and all my photos...it's also enough for ted's drumming site which david is busting ass on (or will be busting ass on to get it live by march)...
...i found out today that i am now an international rock photographer...yes, it's true...my photo was published on an oniline swedish article about my favorite georgian rocker bill mallonee...you can see for yourself right here...you'll have to scroll down some to see the photo w/ my name next to it...there's another photo of mine being used on the flash thingie beneath the klubb sondag name on the top right...i didn't even remember taking those photos, but they're apparently from the show @ schuba's back in september...my swedish is a little rusty, but the article basically says something about how much the swedes love buddy miller and now they've got a new rocker to love in buddy's good friend bill mallonee, and how he's comparable to bob dylan whom the author of the article adores...apparently, bill & jake are playing their first show in sweden on march 7th...if you're in that neck of the woods (er, snowfields rather), make sure you check out bill mallonee @ klubb sondag in orebro...
been listening to--
get lost--the magnetic fields
69 love songs v.3--the magnetic fields
give up--the postal service
volume & destiny--duvall
...i found out today that i am now an international rock photographer...yes, it's true...my photo was published on an oniline swedish article about my favorite georgian rocker bill mallonee...you can see for yourself right here...you'll have to scroll down some to see the photo w/ my name next to it...there's another photo of mine being used on the flash thingie beneath the klubb sondag name on the top right...i didn't even remember taking those photos, but they're apparently from the show @ schuba's back in september...my swedish is a little rusty, but the article basically says something about how much the swedes love buddy miller and now they've got a new rocker to love in buddy's good friend bill mallonee, and how he's comparable to bob dylan whom the author of the article adores...apparently, bill & jake are playing their first show in sweden on march 7th...if you're in that neck of the woods (er, snowfields rather), make sure you check out bill mallonee @ klubb sondag in orebro...
been listening to--
get lost--the magnetic fields
69 love songs v.3--the magnetic fields
give up--the postal service
volume & destiny--duvall
...happy day after valentine's day folks! yesterday was me & teddy's one year anniversary...this is the "official" anniversary of when we defined the relationship a year ago, after a couple months of hanging out and getting to know each other...it just happened to coincide with valentines day, so it makes it easy for us both to remember...teddy worked until 9 pm, and i cooked what is to me an elaborate meal...the main course was a maple syrup marinated salmon...it was a really easy recipe, which you can check out right over here...it's basically, syrup, soy sauce, garlic and black pepper...and thanks to my garlic press, even i had that marinade prepared in less than 10 minutes...the salmon was fresh wild salmon from whole foods...i risked my life and sanity shopping at the whole foods on north & sheffield...that whole 4 block radius near north & clybourn is certifiably a death trap and road rage trigger...esp. the parking lot for whole foods/best buy...i ended up parking in the garage across the street...anyways, in addition to the salmon, i made this spicy mango salsa that was kick ass, and except for all the chopping, it wasn't too hard to make...i used cilantro instead of basil, and i also added a couple chopped mini yellow & red sweet peppers and chopped pineapple...i nuked some trader joe's jasmine rice for the side, and voila, it was a full meal...now the dessert was what gave me the most trouble...it was a double chocolate mocha trifle, and it should have been rather easy to make had i bought the right ingredients...the recipe called for instant pudding mix, and i had bought the cooked kind that you have to simmer and boil, so when i mixed the pudding powder with milk and whisked and whisked, it didn't get any thicker, and i couldn't figure out why...i had to fetch the box out of the trash to read the instructions, and that's when i realized i bought the wrong kind of pudding mix...so i threw it in a pot and started simmering...i then made the mistake of walking away from the stove...you should never do this when you're cooking pudding apparently, cuz before i knew it, i smelled something burning...yuck...burnt pudding...i salvaged what i could, but i don't think it tasted quite right...oh well...
...i tried to time the cooking just right so that it would be done right when teddy came over after work...he brought me 2 dozen lavender roses and a bottle of chardonnay, which i'd requested to go w/ the salmon...which ended up overcooked, by the way...anyways, he was very appreciative since i hardly ever cook for him...it was a lovely dinner just because it was with my teddy, and it was better than going out somewhere, even if restaurant food might have tasted better...it's really the thought that counts, right? and i did think good and hard while i was cooking, even though it might not have seemed like it from the stupid mistakes that i made along the way...
...we walked over to the subterranean to see the detholz after dinner...i hadn't seen them play in months so even though it was fuhreezing outside, and i was somewhat tipsy from sharing that bottle of wine, i made us go, and i'm glad i did cuz it was definitely good to see derek and linda and the boys...i must admit though that i made the near fatal mistake of having a cigarette when i was not quite sober...one american spirit was enough to make the entire world spin around me...and there was just something about the last song by the band opening up before the detholz that made everything spin a tad faster, and i made a beeline for the ladies room and said a hasty goodbye to my dinner...i'm so glad they have couches upstairs at the subterranean cuz i really needed to lie down for like the next half hour or so...i think i only caught the last half of the detholz, which is regrettable, but i really wasn't feeling up to it...i was literally stumbling around as i was taking my photos...which are over here by the way...
...so all that work over dinner only to discard it a couple hours later...oh well...so goes life sometimes...
...oh, i also have duvall photos from a month ago over here too...dat's it...gotta go look at some apartments now...
LIFE AT SEA were on WLUW's radio free chicago program tonight...i should've said something about this earlier, but i just happened to find out this afternoon...teddy was on his way to work and he was listening to WLUW, and he called me cuz he heard them mention that they'd played a DETHOLZ! song, and then something about LIFE AT SEA and 90 DAY MEN...so i happened to visit the LAS site, and that's how i found out about the show tonight...but then i worked until almost 8pm and totally forgot...i visited my mom, and it was on my way home after 9:30 that i just happened to turn on the radio, and i hear erik (of LIFE AT SEA) singing...doh! i'd totally forgotten...but i still got to hear like 3 songs...it was an acoustic set i think, at least the songs i heard, but it was still way lovely...seriously, folks, check them out at the double door before they head out for their march tour...you will not find anything better to do to celebrate the leap year on 2/29 than to see these guys rock the NDM six corners...and speaking of the detholz!, they are playing a valentine show @ subterannean saturday night...they go on at midnight, which would be just about the time of teddy's and my 1 year anniversary! yay!
been listening to--
yours, mine and ours--pernice brothers
michigan--sufjan stevens
bleed american--jimmy eat world
feminist sweepstake--le tigre
protein source of the future...now!--the mountain goats
...well, i don't lose my composure often in public, but i almost lost it at the river east amc theaters last night...teddy & i went to see tim burton's new movie BIG FISH while jay & david went to see paycheck...i really had no idea what the movie was about, but my friends who'd seen it raved about it...IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE YET, I'M ABOUT TO RUIN IT FOR YOU, SO I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU GO READ SOMETHING ELSE...
...i won't go into details, but let's just say that there's a dad dying of cancer, a dad who's lived a really 'big fish' of a life, and a son who tries desparately to get to know who his father is beyond the elaborate stories he's heard, stories which turn out to be truer than he could've imagined...i mean, the little details like the dying dad having to sip water from a glass w/ a straw because he can't take actual gulps or sips, or the son staying at the hospital with him through his last night alive, and then the funeral with all the people who showed up, the people his dad had helped or befriended during his lifetime, all with their own stories of his dad...
...it was all too familiar for me...and you know what i realized after seeing that movie last night? i realized that my dad too had lived a 'big fish' of a life...i remember soaking in all the stories he would tell me and my brother...about an occupied korea, and then a wartorn korea...about fleeing seoul and living in refugee camps...about an older sister who ran off with a north korean army officer...his family losing all their wealth during the war...being separated after the war from his maternal grandmother, who lived in north korea, and whom he never saw again...how he became a news reporter even though he'd been a phyics major and worked as a high school physics teacher after college...his mountain climbing expeditions, and the scars still on his hands from the time he was supporting his burly novice climber friend who stumbled down the side of the mountain and he had to hang on as the rope burned into his hands to save him...and the time half of his climbing team died in an avalanche because they had not followed him and the rest of the team further up the mountain before camping for the night...how after he was rescued he insisted on staying with the rescue team to cover the story for his newspaper, to the dismay of my anxious mom who was in seoul...about the time he got drunk and fought a cop and got one of his front teeth knocked out...or his adventures going to alpine skiing school in the REAL ALPS in france and his preparations to lead a himilayan expedition which he never did because he almost died from kidney failure...how he lay in the hospital recovering from his illness, and his mother's friends from her church came to pray for him and how he turned his back to them and refused to listen, but how he couldn't sleep that night and opened up the bible they'd left and started reading and how he wept at the message of the gospel...i was just a baby at that time when he became a christian in that hospital bed...and that was the beginning of a whole new adventure for my dad...
...for the 30 years he lived after that night in the hospital, until his very last night on this earth, again in a hospital bed, he was on one adventure after another...but these weren't the type of adventures people will oooh and aaaahh over...these were adventures in seeing lives transformed, in seeing people's hearts healed, in seeing relationships mended, in seeing people embark on their own spiritual adventures...there's no doubt that pastoring and preaching and worshipping were my dad's passions until he died, and i don't think he felt that he'd been left out of any of the fun he would've had if he'd kept on living the life he'd been living before he gave up his old dreams for new ones...in fact, i know that he was convinced that there was no greater joy for him in this life than to be doing what he was doing...
...my dad should've have been the pastor of a huge and flourishing church...i know he had more love and humility than so many who lead multi-million dollar ministries and drive mercedes and what not...there was nothing flashy about my dad...the few years that he did pastor a church after retiring from years of working a day job as an IT professional, that church never had more than a few dozen members...my dad should've had an international preaching ministry...he was good...i mean, he'd preach in korean so i couldn't really understand what he was saying, but he was so dynamic and passionate, you couldn't help but be moved...
...had my dad lived, who knows...but those were not the things that he even desired...he had no ambition save that of doing whatever it was that god called him to do on that day...and usually, it meant comforting the widows or single moms and the fatherless, or loving troubled and confused teens without judgment or condemnation, or recognizing and honoring the prayerful korean grandmas who did nothing but pray and sing hymns and watch korean TV all day...my dad saw the painful cultural and generational gap between the korean first generation and their children and grandchildren...he worked so hard to rebuild burned bridges and to bring the two.five generations together...and he loved the children and recognized them as equals in the spiritual world, and he encouraged them to participate in worship and prayer as much as the adults...
...at my dad's wake and funeral, i will never forget the hundreds of different faces i saw who came to mourn with my family...many considered him as their father, some as the only father they'd known...i saw even teenage boys openly weeping...i never knew the extent of my father's impact on others' lives until he himself was gone...my dad truly truly was a big fish, although he had the humility of a minnow...
...but it's not all that he did for other people that i remember the most...it's how he LOVED ME, his little girl...how he accepted me even when i seemed to be rejecting everything he'd taught me...it's the delight i saw in my father's eyes when i was with him that i treasure...the feeling of total acceptance, and the freedom to be who i was, knowing that he would never love me less...
...when i look at my dad's life, i can't deny the presence of a power that is of another world...i don't totally understand it, but that's why i can't just flat out reject the faith that he held to so strongly...if you had known my dad, you would understand...
...how does one ever recover from such a loss as this? i don't think i ever will...
...i won't go into details, but let's just say that there's a dad dying of cancer, a dad who's lived a really 'big fish' of a life, and a son who tries desparately to get to know who his father is beyond the elaborate stories he's heard, stories which turn out to be truer than he could've imagined...i mean, the little details like the dying dad having to sip water from a glass w/ a straw because he can't take actual gulps or sips, or the son staying at the hospital with him through his last night alive, and then the funeral with all the people who showed up, the people his dad had helped or befriended during his lifetime, all with their own stories of his dad...
...it was all too familiar for me...and you know what i realized after seeing that movie last night? i realized that my dad too had lived a 'big fish' of a life...i remember soaking in all the stories he would tell me and my brother...about an occupied korea, and then a wartorn korea...about fleeing seoul and living in refugee camps...about an older sister who ran off with a north korean army officer...his family losing all their wealth during the war...being separated after the war from his maternal grandmother, who lived in north korea, and whom he never saw again...how he became a news reporter even though he'd been a phyics major and worked as a high school physics teacher after college...his mountain climbing expeditions, and the scars still on his hands from the time he was supporting his burly novice climber friend who stumbled down the side of the mountain and he had to hang on as the rope burned into his hands to save him...and the time half of his climbing team died in an avalanche because they had not followed him and the rest of the team further up the mountain before camping for the night...how after he was rescued he insisted on staying with the rescue team to cover the story for his newspaper, to the dismay of my anxious mom who was in seoul...about the time he got drunk and fought a cop and got one of his front teeth knocked out...or his adventures going to alpine skiing school in the REAL ALPS in france and his preparations to lead a himilayan expedition which he never did because he almost died from kidney failure...how he lay in the hospital recovering from his illness, and his mother's friends from her church came to pray for him and how he turned his back to them and refused to listen, but how he couldn't sleep that night and opened up the bible they'd left and started reading and how he wept at the message of the gospel...i was just a baby at that time when he became a christian in that hospital bed...and that was the beginning of a whole new adventure for my dad...
...for the 30 years he lived after that night in the hospital, until his very last night on this earth, again in a hospital bed, he was on one adventure after another...but these weren't the type of adventures people will oooh and aaaahh over...these were adventures in seeing lives transformed, in seeing people's hearts healed, in seeing relationships mended, in seeing people embark on their own spiritual adventures...there's no doubt that pastoring and preaching and worshipping were my dad's passions until he died, and i don't think he felt that he'd been left out of any of the fun he would've had if he'd kept on living the life he'd been living before he gave up his old dreams for new ones...in fact, i know that he was convinced that there was no greater joy for him in this life than to be doing what he was doing...
...my dad should've have been the pastor of a huge and flourishing church...i know he had more love and humility than so many who lead multi-million dollar ministries and drive mercedes and what not...there was nothing flashy about my dad...the few years that he did pastor a church after retiring from years of working a day job as an IT professional, that church never had more than a few dozen members...my dad should've had an international preaching ministry...he was good...i mean, he'd preach in korean so i couldn't really understand what he was saying, but he was so dynamic and passionate, you couldn't help but be moved...
...had my dad lived, who knows...but those were not the things that he even desired...he had no ambition save that of doing whatever it was that god called him to do on that day...and usually, it meant comforting the widows or single moms and the fatherless, or loving troubled and confused teens without judgment or condemnation, or recognizing and honoring the prayerful korean grandmas who did nothing but pray and sing hymns and watch korean TV all day...my dad saw the painful cultural and generational gap between the korean first generation and their children and grandchildren...he worked so hard to rebuild burned bridges and to bring the two.five generations together...and he loved the children and recognized them as equals in the spiritual world, and he encouraged them to participate in worship and prayer as much as the adults...
...at my dad's wake and funeral, i will never forget the hundreds of different faces i saw who came to mourn with my family...many considered him as their father, some as the only father they'd known...i saw even teenage boys openly weeping...i never knew the extent of my father's impact on others' lives until he himself was gone...my dad truly truly was a big fish, although he had the humility of a minnow...
...but it's not all that he did for other people that i remember the most...it's how he LOVED ME, his little girl...how he accepted me even when i seemed to be rejecting everything he'd taught me...it's the delight i saw in my father's eyes when i was with him that i treasure...the feeling of total acceptance, and the freedom to be who i was, knowing that he would never love me less...
...when i look at my dad's life, i can't deny the presence of a power that is of another world...i don't totally understand it, but that's why i can't just flat out reject the faith that he held to so strongly...if you had known my dad, you would understand...
...how does one ever recover from such a loss as this? i don't think i ever will...
...the KIM show on friday night totally RULED the SCHOOL!!! go see photos right here! it was a rawkin' show all around...all three bands were really good...KIM were by far the happiest and bubbliest and funnest (not to mention cutest) of them all! the crowd was totally receptive and didn't want them to stop...you could tell a lot of the folks were there just for KIM...it was my first time seeing them live, and man oh man am i glad i got this chance cuz who knows when they'll be playing next!
stephanie from team do!boo! did merch that night for both KIM and for the M'S who were headlining...the merch table was really busy, it being a sold out show and all...michelle from team do!boo! helped stephanie during the KIM set, but for most of the show, it was poor little stephanie on her own...between selling stuff and fielding all the guys who were trying to ask her out, she was pretty pooped by the end of the night...oh the joys of the merch table...i know a thing or two about that i suppose...
...my h.s. buddy olarn came to the show and kept teddy company...and then my friend ann moon came with a whole cadre of korean american gals, including jocelyn whom teddy & i had met last weekend...so there was olarn suddenly surrounded by all these beautiful asian women, and i pulled him aside and sternly told him not to even think about hitting on any of them...he complied for the most part...if he hadn't, i probably would have been scraping pieces of olarn off schuba's floor cuz i know some of those girls could totally kick his ass without even batting an eyelash...anyways, he still had fun cuz he talked to the women in a civilized manner, and so of course they returned the treatment...and it was a rockin' show on top of that...
...i didn't take any photos of the M's cuz i was too tired, but i have to say that they totally rawked...i was rather surprised cuz these guys don't even have a full length out yet, just a $5 ep...even teddy really liked them...i couldn't find him for their whole set cuz he was up front and totally swallowed up by the crowd...i thought he'd found a place to lie down and take a nap, but he was actually enjoying the music...the M's come out w/ a full length this spring...their cd release party is friday apr 2 @ schuba's with the decemberists...i bet you anything that show sells out...as much as i hate shooting photos at sold out shows, i think i'll be at this one...
...saturday teddy & i looked at some apartments...there is one possibility so far...if that one doesn't work out, i'm most likely going to stay put...*sigh*...the purging continues nevertheless...
...saturday i got a call from caleb...he & his fiancee kathy were in town cuz of a project he's doing for school...they were on the northside so we met up at the art gallery kafe and chatted...it was the first time i officiailly met kathy...it's all very exciting, caleb getting married and all...i'm gonna shoot candid shots at their wedding in july...should be loads of fun...i met up with them again later for dinner down in hyde park at the snail...they were with some old friends joel and karen who were visiting from south bend, IN and with audrey as well...it was so good to see audrey after all these months! she's one of my favorite people in the whole world! she's one of the few people i know who can make me feel totally welcome and at ease...AND she can totally rock out on a guitar! one of my favorite memories ever is when she & caleb played me a private concert in my apartment until like 4am...
...sunday teddy went to church with me...we picked up carlos on the way too...caleb & aud were videotaping the service for their project for school...sam & jenn were there too so we went to chinatown afterwards to joy yee's...it was crazy busy and we were super super crunched together like sardines...but it was yummy...
...sunday night was pretty uneventful...ted was working until 1 am so i did laundry and went to bed early...teddy called me on his way to his apt from work, and i think i said some totally unintelligible stuff about whatever dream i happened to be having when he called...he gave up trying to talk to me and told me to go back to my dreaming...
...oh...here are photos i took recently in hyde park on the U of C campus...this is for caleb, pierre, todd, aud, kathy, and all the other U of C alums who mean anything to me...
been listening to--
march 16-20, 1992--uncle tupelo
end seranading--mineral
the meadowlands--the wrens
give up--the postal service
summerteeth--wilco
no good for no one now--owen
hashin' it out--euphone
s/t--the m's
exitheuxa--gogogo airheart
...i'm alive! i'm alive! yay! it's good to be alive!
...seriously, folks, it was a nervewracking experience driving home in that snow out there...not exactly a blizzard or even a snowstorm, but i don't think i got above 45mph even on the edens w/ very little traffic...ever since i totalled my honda civic last year, i've been rather nervous driving in inclement weather, even though i now own an all-wheel drive subaru...i'm not so much worried about MY car losing control, as i am of OTHER PEOPLE'S cars, like my former honda civic did...i guess it's a sign i'm getting old...i would actually forgo driving impatiently in exchange for a higher chance of still being alive by the time i arrive at my destination...i mean, think about it...a) drive twice as fast as everyone else on the roads and potentially die and kill or seriously injure other innocent folk, or b) drive patiently at leat 8 M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I's behind the car in front of me and stay alive and actually get to wherever it is that i'm going...it's not so difficult a choice for me...
...i hung out at my mom's after work...she made me my favorite ahl-chi-gae (fish egg stew YUM) and ttukbokki (spicy stir-fried rice cakes)...she & my brother jim & i watched a korean movie i'd found at blockbuster's called THE WAY HOME about a little spoiled brat of a boy who goes to live with his mute hunchbacked grandma in a tiny rural village where they don't even have a store that sells batteries for his gameboy...it was really touching how the grandma, without any words, but with lots of love and seemingly endless patience and abounding grace and forgiveness teaches the little boy how to love someone other than himself
...seeing this movie made me long for the countryside of korea...the last time i was there, almost 13 years ago, i went on a trip w/ a bunch of church folks to the most remote part of korea that i'd ever been to...it was hours away from seoul, which is far considering the whole peninsula can't be more than the size of the state of illinois...i remember seeing villagers in traditional korean costumes called hanbok, which most koreans only wear on new years or for special occasions, but which these rural folks wore everyday, just like they did a hundred years ago...they had such a weathered look...skin darkened and toughened from hours spent working the fields in the sun...deeply engraved lines that mapped out the stories of their hard lives...and yet the gentleness and kindness that quietly and peacefully exuded from them were comforting to a modern fast-paced urbanite like myself...
...as much as i love the city and the urban life, there's a part of me that longs for the serenity of the country...and by COUNTRY, i mean the countryside of my motherland...the cities in korea are notorious for their overpopulation and polution and traffic jams, but you'd be amazed at how much slower time seems to move when you get into the remote areas that haven't yet been ensnared by the tentacles of technology and development...someday, i will go back for the photos and stories i left behind...
...my mom's doing a lot better...she's still getting radiation 5 days a week in the city, but she's gotten used to it and can even drive herself for treatment now...she was really happy to see me though, and i feel sad that i don't get to see her as often...maybe i can ask ted to have lunch w/ her sometime after her treatments on his day off...it was nice though to spend time w/ her and my bro...jim just started working at starbucks so he gave me his weekly pound of coffee! yay!
...before i forget, i know i didn't say much about cameron mcgill's set at the life at sea metro show last tuesday...that's cuz i wanted to go through my photos and get them up first...i have to say though that teddy & i were both really impressed with his songs...he's got a great voice, and his songs are really beautiful in that sad, country bluesy sort of way...and you know how i love the cello and fiddle and lap steel! he's definitely worth checking out, and i hope to see a show where he's headlining someday soon...i was totally on ebay looking for a cheap cello the day after that show...you can see my photos of the cameron mcgill set right over here...
...speaking of making music, teddy, dave & i were jamming at their apartment a couple days ago...i was getting a drum lesson, and dave was playing along on his bass while i practiced my beats...then teddy took over the drumkit and i took over the bass and dave played percussions...i hadn't played in a while, but it felt really good to just play melodies...teddy likes it when i play melodic bass, more so than when i play bass lines...and i really can't play bass lines...i play the bass like it's a solo instrument, ya know? i can't read music for it either and can only play by ear...i ended up playing the little drummer boy, which got me thinking that it would be fun to do a christmas album next year...yeah, i know, that would be totally stealing sufjan's thing, but everyone's doing christmas albums these days, so why the hell not? we'll see...if not, i'll put out a solo album of melodic bass songs using only the two top strings...
don't forget...the long awaited KIM show is tomorrow night at schubas!
been listening to--
end seranading--mineral
highway 61 revisited--bob dylan
summer sun--yo la tengo
our constant concern--mates of state
disintegration--the cure
a.m.--wilco
peng!--stereolab!
...seriously, folks, it was a nervewracking experience driving home in that snow out there...not exactly a blizzard or even a snowstorm, but i don't think i got above 45mph even on the edens w/ very little traffic...ever since i totalled my honda civic last year, i've been rather nervous driving in inclement weather, even though i now own an all-wheel drive subaru...i'm not so much worried about MY car losing control, as i am of OTHER PEOPLE'S cars, like my former honda civic did...i guess it's a sign i'm getting old...i would actually forgo driving impatiently in exchange for a higher chance of still being alive by the time i arrive at my destination...i mean, think about it...a) drive twice as fast as everyone else on the roads and potentially die and kill or seriously injure other innocent folk, or b) drive patiently at leat 8 M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I's behind the car in front of me and stay alive and actually get to wherever it is that i'm going...it's not so difficult a choice for me...
...i hung out at my mom's after work...she made me my favorite ahl-chi-gae (fish egg stew YUM) and ttukbokki (spicy stir-fried rice cakes)...she & my brother jim & i watched a korean movie i'd found at blockbuster's called THE WAY HOME about a little spoiled brat of a boy who goes to live with his mute hunchbacked grandma in a tiny rural village where they don't even have a store that sells batteries for his gameboy...it was really touching how the grandma, without any words, but with lots of love and seemingly endless patience and abounding grace and forgiveness teaches the little boy how to love someone other than himself...seeing this movie made me long for the countryside of korea...the last time i was there, almost 13 years ago, i went on a trip w/ a bunch of church folks to the most remote part of korea that i'd ever been to...it was hours away from seoul, which is far considering the whole peninsula can't be more than the size of the state of illinois...i remember seeing villagers in traditional korean costumes called hanbok, which most koreans only wear on new years or for special occasions, but which these rural folks wore everyday, just like they did a hundred years ago...they had such a weathered look...skin darkened and toughened from hours spent working the fields in the sun...deeply engraved lines that mapped out the stories of their hard lives...and yet the gentleness and kindness that quietly and peacefully exuded from them were comforting to a modern fast-paced urbanite like myself...
...as much as i love the city and the urban life, there's a part of me that longs for the serenity of the country...and by COUNTRY, i mean the countryside of my motherland...the cities in korea are notorious for their overpopulation and polution and traffic jams, but you'd be amazed at how much slower time seems to move when you get into the remote areas that haven't yet been ensnared by the tentacles of technology and development...someday, i will go back for the photos and stories i left behind...
...my mom's doing a lot better...she's still getting radiation 5 days a week in the city, but she's gotten used to it and can even drive herself for treatment now...she was really happy to see me though, and i feel sad that i don't get to see her as often...maybe i can ask ted to have lunch w/ her sometime after her treatments on his day off...it was nice though to spend time w/ her and my bro...jim just started working at starbucks so he gave me his weekly pound of coffee! yay!
...before i forget, i know i didn't say much about cameron mcgill's set at the life at sea metro show last tuesday...that's cuz i wanted to go through my photos and get them up first...i have to say though that teddy & i were both really impressed with his songs...he's got a great voice, and his songs are really beautiful in that sad, country bluesy sort of way...and you know how i love the cello and fiddle and lap steel! he's definitely worth checking out, and i hope to see a show where he's headlining someday soon...i was totally on ebay looking for a cheap cello the day after that show...you can see my photos of the cameron mcgill set right over here...
...speaking of making music, teddy, dave & i were jamming at their apartment a couple days ago...i was getting a drum lesson, and dave was playing along on his bass while i practiced my beats...then teddy took over the drumkit and i took over the bass and dave played percussions...i hadn't played in a while, but it felt really good to just play melodies...teddy likes it when i play melodic bass, more so than when i play bass lines...and i really can't play bass lines...i play the bass like it's a solo instrument, ya know? i can't read music for it either and can only play by ear...i ended up playing the little drummer boy, which got me thinking that it would be fun to do a christmas album next year...yeah, i know, that would be totally stealing sufjan's thing, but everyone's doing christmas albums these days, so why the hell not? we'll see...if not, i'll put out a solo album of melodic bass songs using only the two top strings...
don't forget...the long awaited KIM show is tomorrow night at schubas!
been listening to--
end seranading--mineral
highway 61 revisited--bob dylan
summer sun--yo la tengo
our constant concern--mates of state
disintegration--the cure
a.m.--wilco
peng!--stereolab!
when it rains, it pours...
...so considering all that hard work i put into unplugging my tub saturday, you'd think i'd be enjoying the fruits of my labors and taking a nice hot shower, right? yeah, well, the pipes burst yesterday, and i had no hot water when i got home last night...nor this morning...nor when i got home from work tonight...i absolutely had to wash my filthy hair cuz i have a trader joe's after hours tasting party to go to (ah, the benefits of dating a trader joe crewmember!)...so in desperation, i washed my hair in ice cold water...
...and now i go to catch pneumonia in the hostile winter out there...actually, it's not too bad...it was a balmy 35 degrees when i got off the metra at 7:30 this evening...
...off i go into winter wonderland!...i hope i don't smell too bad...
...so considering all that hard work i put into unplugging my tub saturday, you'd think i'd be enjoying the fruits of my labors and taking a nice hot shower, right? yeah, well, the pipes burst yesterday, and i had no hot water when i got home last night...nor this morning...nor when i got home from work tonight...i absolutely had to wash my filthy hair cuz i have a trader joe's after hours tasting party to go to (ah, the benefits of dating a trader joe crewmember!)...so in desperation, i washed my hair in ice cold water...
...and now i go to catch pneumonia in the hostile winter out there...actually, it's not too bad...it was a balmy 35 degrees when i got off the metra at 7:30 this evening...
...off i go into winter wonderland!...i hope i don't smell too bad...
...well, folks, we've survived january in chicago...it was a whopping 17 degrees yesterday, and i hear it's a sizzling 24 degrees today! woohoo! i'm gonna get my tank top and sandals out! i think i can feel my toes again...they live! they live!
...friday night was a damn frigid experience...teddy & i met my childhood chum ann moon and her friend jocylynn(sp?huh?) for some sushi @ bluefin...all we could think about was how fucking cold it was...the food was yummy but totally broke my piggy bank...i ain't doin' dat again...not for another 10 years at least...it was nice to spend time w/ ann...she's leaving for hawaii (that beyatch!) on the 10th for 6 months (double beyatch!) and she gets PAID while she's there...she's a contractor nurse and travels the world...literally...she just got back from the land down under a month ago...*sigh*...some girls get all the fun...me, i get NYC or seattle every so often, and the lovely windy city any day of the week, month, year, decade...
...saturday, i got a real work out on my biceps and triceps...i plunged my bathtub for a good hour or so...seriously, i swear by plunging (literally SWEAR, i'm talking the f-bomb, the mf-bomb and SHITs galore), even though it is definitely not a glam gig...i eventually break down and start asking for divine intervention...i don't make deals any more ("i promise to be a good girl from now on if you'll just make the damn dingy water gurgle happily and QUICKLY down the drain...") cuz i know i'm not good for it...it's more like, "look, i'm not gonna promise you anything, but have a heart! i seriously need a shower!" and when that water finally makes that lovely little funnel down that fucking drain, i can't describe the elation i experience...it's a high that lasts at least 10 minutes...i scrubbed that bathtub good after i finally got the drain working...it was a gleaming off-white by the time i was done with it...it's clean enough to actually take a bath in now...
...i spent the rest of saturday installing firewalls on my two computers cuz of that damn mydoom virus...update your virus definitions folks or you can wreak havoc on the cyberworld unbeknownstedly to yourself...
...and in a little while, i'm gonna go grab some high lifes and pbrs and head on over to the next team do!boo! meeting...we're making kim bop, the korean version of maki!
been listening to--
danse macabre--the faint
read music speak spanish--desaparecidos
bleed american--jimmy eat world
