good things --

The 'real' world is soon approaching. None of this jam-band frat mentality will ever draw contempt from my heart ever again (!!!) -- hooray! Anyway, since I've been whining so much in my other entries, this one will be dedicated to the good things I got from my four years here -- and in no particular order...

1. Music/WRVU: I love the station, and I guess the reason why I'm so angry (see previous entry) about things is that I really want it to do well, and I really want it to uphold its services to listeners, that is letting good music that hardly ever gets heard get heard. I mean, that's what college radio is all about, isn't it? A lot of bands are really wonderful and they should be heard! I'm sad that I only have like 10 or so shows left. I don't know what I'll do every week now...

2. Classical stuffz: Classics is awesome. I just wish I got started on my major sooner. I regret not being able to take all the classes that our department here offers, like Akkadian, which was supposed to be offered this semester, but I guess not enough interest was generated. Anyway, it's a subject that I think is important to understand a lot of things -- I mean the culture of the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Babylonians, and their neighbors has ultimately informed our own. It's so INTERESTING. And I guess I'll just have to continue translating random stuff from school like Horace's Odes and the Ars Amatoria, which I suggest everybody to read because it's hilarious!

3. Concerts: I'm just really excited about the Flaming Lips (!!!!) -- whoa!!! And it just almost makes up for the fact we didn't get to go to SXSW, though I totally missed the Flight of the Conchords concert (tickets sold out so quickly -- ARG!!)

4. HBO: I won't have HBO at home or ever, probably. But I like watching the aforementioned Flight of the Conchords, and of course, Sam is addicted to Big Love. Also they have some pretty good movies on -- Channel 27 introduced me to Waiting for Guffman, which I still find hilarious...

5. Nashville (specifics): Thank God for Grimey's, the Great Escape, the Belcourt, Pancake Pantry, Bookman/Bookwoman, Fido's, Korea House, Trader Joe's, the Downtown Presbyterian Church ('cuz it looks like the temple at Karnak), the music venues, JJ's, etc.... I only wish I brought I bike so I could go even further, instead of having to ride the bus.

6. The University's Library: It's given me a chance to catch up on my list of books/films/music, which is endless, but still -- I made a dent (kind of). Now that I'm about to graduate, I might have to spend some money on netflix or start buying the movies...

7. Never become an alcoholic/skank: I learned way too much in my first week as a freshman -- and I mean from others. Man, they sure acted like fools. It was ridiculous...

8. New Words to my Vocabulary: It's mostly 'sexual' slang, but now I understand a lot of Chris Rock jokes and most of the dirty jokes on the Daily Show! And that's thanks to Sam, the pervert. Just kidding. He's not a pervert -- he just grew up around them. Just kidding again. You just learn these words as middle schoolers, though clearly I didn't because I grew up around other Asian kids.

9. Ma friendz: I like them very much and am very glad I met them, though I'm sad they are mostly all gone now, scattered around various parts of the country. But we shall meet once again!! (once Bethany marries some boy -- so hurry up, Bethany!).

10. Sam: I'm just very glad to have met him. He's funny, and I like him a lot.

11. Book Learnin': I like to learn, and I hope to continue learning (?!?!!) next year. We'll see...

I hope I'm not forgetting anything. I'll talk more about the things that have been on my mind, but I feel like, at the moment, I should talk about something good.

Hope all is well!

Oh, Radio...

So as some of you (Bethany + Kristie, my sole & faithful readers) may know, I work at a radio station .... for 'fun,' or at least I thought so at the beginning. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't dislike it -- in fact, the reason why I got into it was because I like music [A LOT] and the idea of getting to explore/share different genres/bands/songs/etc with listeners and meeting people, who were equally excited about music as me, was the ultimate lure. And I love DJing: the people at the station know what they are doing (Kels, Randy, and Pete are the nicest fellows ever, and Ken Berryhill is so charming) and the listeners (usually) are great.

But the music director thing, I'm more ambivalent towards, particularly this past year. It was mostly personal issues like with the media board. They took away SXSW from me, and after Sam told me, I just started crying (I had been looking forward/working hard towards the trip for 2 years). And then things started looking quite dismal on the indie musical frontier -- I was looking for a good records and only few came my way. It was, admittedly, disappointing in that music for me (perhaps from being jaded by listening to so many bands that are trying to sound like the Franz Ferdinand, who in turn sound like the Fire Engines, or the Arctic Monkeys, who in turn take a lot from the Strokes) was starting to become predictable and unsatisfying as an art and general enjoyment -- I guess, that's why my show is so schizophrenic, as Pete had once told me. I'm always trying to search for something new and interesting. I also reckon that's why I like modern art so much because it's so immediately and directly different. Anyway, I'm starting to ramble...

Getting back to the point -- As the months of being in this position dwindle, I'm starting to think about all the things I have done here and my experiences. Did listeners discover new bands from us? Do they even still tune into our station like they used to -- do we still have that credibility? And most of all does music now truly lack depth, which brings up even more complicated questions that I'm not even going to get into? For now, I guess, I'll just continue to sift through bins filled with music submissions and new arrivals, and hope for the best.

Art-ttttt

It's awesome. Here's a few that I'm particularly interested in right now.

Francis Bacon: A tortured soul, who doesn't believe in God. He was a very interesting person, and I remember the first time I heard of him was from a oncologist, who really admired the tormented souls in his work. Anyway, this website (courtesy of Tate Online) has a really neat interactive room with his works. It has explanations as well, so it is a great introduction to Francis Bacon.

Hy Hirsch: Avant-garde filmmaker/cinematographer and does wonderful electronic work with shapes and colors in his videos. Though because he didn't like much of his own work, it's difficult to know and understand the true breadth of his art and style. Here is a sample (courtesy of Ubu).

Dan Flavin: He is an installation artist that works primarily with fluorescent lights in a very minimal way. He utilizes (and sometimes enhances) shapes of rooms and the colors (and limitations) of the lights to create beautiful pieces. However, it's much better to see it in person than on a computer screen or a photograph -- for instance....
Jeff Koons: He's always kind of been a favorite of mine, though I don't exactly agree with his 'Made in Heaven' series (if you are curious, by all means, look it up -- but I have to warn you, if sexually explicit images offend you, DON'T GO!). I was lucky enough to see 'Pink Panther' at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. I like his work because a lot of it incorporates Pop Culture, familiar shapes/objects, and kitsch in a charming way, but his pieces still say a lot. He can be considered mainstream, but he still manages to remain on the outside of things. And I think he just had a couple of pieces installed on the roof of the Met:

There are a ton of other artists that are on my list, but I'll save those for another day....

Things I do not miss about home...

So I guess this will be the last time I will be at home before I graduate and probably remain home for awhile. It has been a nice rest -- lots of eating, lots of sleeping, lots of watching movies/reading, lots of hanging out with my sister, etc... But as always, I (an eternal pessimist) like to look at the things that make life terrible.

1. Faux-Rich/Upper Middle Class Attitude: So I have a specific story for this one. I was taking a walk because I had a really bad headache and needed some fresh air. And as I was approaching the lake, a lost dog started jumping and sort of fighting with this other dog, which was being walked by this lady. She kind of reminded me of the beauty pageant judge at the end of 'Little Miss Sunshine' -- her voice was exactly like her and the tone she took, ugh... So I run over to try and help her and her dog. I grabbed the collar of the lost dog, and the lady just walks away without saying a word to me (except she sort of yelled at me for not restraining the dog, even though I told her that it wasn't my dog). Anyway, so I'm stuck with this dog, who then keeps jumping on me. I try to walk away, but it keeps following me and trying to knock me down. Finally, the dog gets lays down on a lawn to scratch its back, and I took that chance to run as fast as I could back home. It was a little scary. My point is people in my city and neighborhood just expect things like that -- they have a weird sense of expectation because they think they are special and should (not deserve) to be treated like this. What's stupid is the things I see on TV about the upper-class in Orange County is the exact attitude and personality in these people back at home. So I don't know if this attitude sort of comes with the idea that one is affluent or culture influence (I mean, the way celebrities are treated and their lifestyle). Who knows. I'll just try and ignore them in the future.

2. Gettin' Fat: My mom makes delicious food, and it's hard to resist. Plus it's girl scout cookie season (my sister and I just stole a box -- just kidding, it was for free...kind of...). I predict a weight gain of about 10 pounds. I'm plump and need to cut down on some calories... but after the break!

3. Traffic: People suck at driving here. This is mainly a characteristic of the faux-rich, driving their BMWs, Benz-es, Lexus-es, etc... They don't believe that traffic lights and signs apply to them. And their teenagers are the worst. They speed and cut you off. I guess, really in an attempt to show (ironically) the 'greatness' of their driving skills. Yup, I, for one, am VERY impressed you can drive fast and can surpass me, who is in a dinky 1992 Honda Accord that makes loud (and sometimes rude) noises at 30 mph. And also I live right next to a middle school, so 8-9 AM and 4 PM is the worst time to try and get out of my neighborhood. There are soccer moms lined up by the curbs blatantly disobeying the signs that say 'DON'T FREAKIN' PARK HERE!!!' and their children! OH! Tweens squawking away on their cell phones and engaging in their "social" rituals. Not like I haven't been there before -- actually I really haven't. I was a geek and was pretty much in the band hall until 6, when my parents got off work and picked me up. The only reason why this really upsets me is because they are standing right in front of my mailbox. Oh and the pollution they cause is terrible too.

4. My parent's (still) watchful eye... : Yeah, that's right. I still have a curfew, of like dusk. My parents basically still yell at me if it's almost dark, and I'm not at home. They are scared of everything -- rapists, kidnappers, child molesters, robbers, car thieves, etc... and believe that everything that could go bad does go bad. Obviously, I have had no traumatic run-ins with such maniacal characters, but I guess it could happen. Still, I feel that my age totally qualifies for me being able to hang out later than 10, though I guess my immaturity would suggest otherwise.

5. Being Pressured about Crap: don't wanna talk about, but it's something else I hate about coming home....

Yup, like I said -- I hate suburbia sometimes.

happy new years?

I apologize for not writing in such a long time, but who's checking this blog now-a-days anyway? So nothing much has been going on since last time. I went on a couple of interviews --all of which were a little weird, but I mean it's hard to talk to someone who knows so much about you, and you hardly know anything about them. Sometimes they are rude, sometimes they are nice, sometimes they are pretending to be rude but are really rooting for you, sometimes they are pretending to be nice and are really going against you.

You know -- this whole process kind of sucks. And it's drained a lot out of me, and I've sort of taken that out on the people around me. So I really, seriously, apologize if I've been rude or short-tempered. But I'll tell you one thing I've learned in this whole process -- it's hard to know when people are really being honest with you. I mean I guess that's something that I've struggled with a lot in my life anyway, but maybe I'm just naive. I'm not really sure.

But the good news -- I'm at home now for Spring Break after a rough past 2 weeks at school, which culminated in me punching a wall because of stress (don't ask) and going through a phase of listening to late 80s to early 90s post-punk/lo-fi type music (i.e. bucket loads of Pavement, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Beat Happening and the like vs. my previous phase of late 80s/early 90s Hip Hop, which I have been slowly returning to). This was good, since I really needed to catch up on the alt rock I could I have been listening to in my youth --I've been vainly trying to do so by listening to 'Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain' and 'Sister' like a bajillion times... each! But ah, well! It doesn't matter.

Anyway, I'll do some more writing tomorrow, and tell you what I don't miss about being at home...