last time i was called for jury duty, jhumpa lahiri had just published one of her stories in the new yorker . i know because i asked her during one of the jury selection breaks if she had published anything. she said yes. i didn't know who she was when i asked that question. i found out later that evening on the uptown 6 flipping through my new issue of the new yorker. so i was extra vigilant as soon as i got through security at 100 centre [...]
i've been away for work for almost a week and was more than anxious to get home to daphne and the kids. ian , the driver taking me to heathrow, was the jovial, gray-haired sort that reminded me more than a little of benny hill . barely a block away from the hotel, his cell phone rang and he told me it must be his 14 y.o. niece. "the crudest kid i know," he said with obvious pride. "she sends me rude jokes everyday." then with me watching the [...]
it's been almost a year since i've been to doha, and i have had more caviar in the past 3 days than i've had in the past 3 years. i had it for three lunches, one dinner, and on two qatar airways flights. this gastronomic decadence was but one example of the vast oil and natural gas wealth that is rapidly transforming this tiny land jutting into the persian gulf like a big thumbs up. out of a total population of about a million people, only 20% are actual qataris. like other gulf countries, a majority of [...]
restaurant specializing in fried rice. menu features only a dozen variety of fried rice dishes, and relishes that go with them. off the top of my head, i can think of taiwanese, singaporean, and a few out-of-nowhere ones, like fuji apple with cream omelet and carrots ( ray ray 's inspiration), or fried salmon topped with chinese coleslaw. lil' wayne – the best in the business business man – dubby games be kool – (money) [...]
chatting with a friend the other day, i heard myself saying how much i love being a dad. i guess i've felt this way for a while but just never said it. i love going to the natural history museum with ione to check out the dinos and listen to meryl streep narrate film loops about evolution for the hundredth time; i love reading books with my girl curled up in the crook of my arm; i even love ione pulling herself on to the top of my head by my short, thinning hair. [...]
a perky tune or two... a shot of the surreal... ...a twist of sublime and the bassline. [...]
made my day rudy got his comeuppance in florida. never had much love for the man: i hated his bullying way when he was da mayor, and was deeply offended by all his 9/11 self-promotion and marketing. turning time square into a mall just isn't my idea of vision or leadership. the hubris and the profound ignorance that drove his florida-centric strategy are symptomatic of a delusional, pathological view of the world that fortunately for america, and the world, became roadkill on i-4 last night. public enemy [...]
my first impression of kingston was murky. i don't mean my impression was murky, but the place was murky, as in not well lit. the entire norman manley international airport felt low-wattage, as if it's in a brownout. outside, people and vehicles loitered on the edge of darkness, silhouetted by passing headlights. the ride to the hotel through kingston shanties was equally a shadowy blur, punctuated by occasional street lamps where locals hung out to checked out passing traffic. but music was everywhere. my driver had a station on that had [...]
" kenny dope wanna kick yo ass," jay told me as soon as i got to the office. "yeah, he gonna kick yo ass back to china," mick chimed in, both rows of his yellow, gappy teeth showing. "shut the fuck up, bo!" i shot back. mick got no props in the office, especially after he corn-rolled his hair. "where's al ?" i asked jay, ignoring whatever mick mumbled as a comeback. "dunno," he said, "come back tonight, he'll be here after 9." [...]
i was introduced to pat metheny by this french girl, an ex-girlfriend who had hit the stereotype jackpot: mussy hair, oversized ratty sweater, art major/philosophy minor, a cup of luke-warm coffee in one hand, a smoldering hand-rolled butt in the other, with wisps of acrid smoke twisting slowly in the air. that was during the time of " water color " and " new chautauqua ." even now, when i hear those albums, i get flashbacks of the pathetic sessions at various berkeley coffee shops where i engaged in hours of mental masturbation – pretentious [...]
a few weeks after i arrived at a small east bay biotech company i started hearing stories about kary . there was no way for me to verify what i heard but the versions i've collected from different people were fairly similar, whatever that's worth. i chose to believe them, not because of any conviction in their truthfulness, but because they were amusing and helped feed my mental image of a provocative personality. i heard he published a theoretical physics paper in science or nature while still an undergrad. i hear [...]
after exhanging a few emails with moby , i realized he has no idea what the fuck he's talking about. sure, he has a self-professed interest in music therapy and seems to support those who offer it, but his grasp of it is as profound as what most greenwich trophy wives have for their favorite charities. i know that reeks of cynicism, and i'm probably being less than fair to some of the wives; but because i know just enough to be annoying about both music and science, i can't help but to take things a [...]
we got to the restaurant quarter after 9 and there were hardly anyone there. true, it's still early, but it was also sunday night; either way, it didn't look like there's going to be a crowd. which suited us fine. beyond tired after 4 intense days running a conference for over 1,000 people, we welcomed the chance to keep to ourselves. monica , carlos 's wife, order a bunch of appetizers for us. she pointed to me and told the waiter to hurry before i starved to death. the duck tacos, looking [...]
"don't buy food that are made in china anymore," my mom warned over the phone. "you don't know what's in them." that warning came not in the last few weeks, when it seemed everyday brought revelation of another chinese export that was a health hazard, but last year, when word of shady food processing practices was making the round in the chinese-american media. at the time, i dismissed it largely as whatever. at worst, i thought, it was just business chinese-style: taiwanese, chinese, and local chinese-american food producers clawing each other bloody for [...]
i've always known life was very different for my grandparents' generation: my grandfather was raised by his uncle and aunt instead of his own parents because as the head of the family, they were not able to have a son of their own; my grandparents' marriage was arranged; and for as long as i could remember, my grandfather has had a concubine, who he never acknowledged, even though it was an open secret in the family, until my grandmother passed away and ended their bitterly unhappy life together. but it's a little harder for me to grasp [...]
we were barely out of the midtown tunnel when ione decided she has had enough. "daddy, i want to get out," she declared. good thing daphne and i had anticipated this, albeit closer to the end of our drive than the beginning. like well-drilled commandos, we immediately launched into our pacification routine – a mix of facts and improvised distractions. "you can't get out now because we're driving…would you like mommy to tickle your legs?" "i want to get out…now," she said, clearly unimpressed and more [...]
i was returning the rental car and overheard the clerk talking excitedly with someone on the phone about getting played. it seems a guy had hit several car rental places that morning and got away with 20 bucks each time by posing as a blockbuster employee (?!). too lame a scam to waste space on, let's just say it took advantage of the usual human foibles of greed and shiny objects. what caught my ear was the way he talked about it. "he on top of his game," the owned clerk said authoritatively, like some kind [...]
one of the great things about living in new york is access. access to all kinds of cool stuff at anytime. while we don't always take advantage of what the city has to offer, just knowing we can if we choose to feels like a victory over predictability. one of our favorite places to go on weekends is the museum of natural history . i've always had mixed feelings about that place: its enormous collection of stuffed specimens from the animal kingdom is, umm, more accessible than their living relatives in the bronx zoo. but the [...]
it was my second trip to saudi arabia in less than a year. the flight from nyc stopped in jeddah for an hour or so for security reasons, i was told, before making a skip to riyadh. so instead of the vast arabian desert, i got a glimpse of the ethereal blue of the red sea coastline from 39,000 ft up. i've been running hard lately. this trip was hastily planned because my host didn't confirm a date until the very last minute. i was flying in early morning again, and we begun our descent while it [...]
food memory is different from other memories. you could recall or crave a flavor so vivid you practically taste it, or it could sneak up on you like a good mix, leaving you satisfied and perhaps with a deeper appreciation of what you had just experienced. my feelings for taiwan are mostly about food. i don't mean physical hunger, although that plays a big part, but more memories of a different life lived long ago. for instance, the extreme sourness of salted plums (my brother john calls them "salt bombs") is synonymous with lazy saturday [...]
COMBOPLATES
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
