i just looked thru my old post archives, trying to find out the last time id been back to cornell. i looked for like, a minute. then i thought, hey man, thats alot of effort for a post that will probably barely scrape a paragraph. so my brain revised my plan and i decided to just jump right into the post.
the ny cornell crew (whats left of it anyhoo) decided to take a roadtrip up to cornell this past weekend to visit alice, whos studying and doing ungodly things in order to get her mba. we were actually supposed to head oot friday nite. but the weather forecast was grim, so we revised the departure time to early saturday morning. friday nite tho, i did meet anna and sean to check out some gallery party thingy where they were supposed to be finalists in a competition. they werent tho…they wuz lied to yo. bitches. the beer wasnt even free…le sigh. we marinated for about half an hour before bailing and going to get food at luzzo’s instead. yum.
saturday morning we headed up to cornell to inhale something other than the belch that is nyc air. the trees on the way up were turning a thousands shades of autumn, so we took like a bajillion pictures of trees. like two made it to flickr. we got to ithaca before lunch and immediately went about hitting all the requisite “nostalgia” sites. ithaca bakery, gimme coffee (ok, new to me), collegetown, sibley, rand hall, etc. that lasted only a few hours tho, so we vegged out in alices apartment too. we did other stuff…and ate you know, food…and stuff. but getting into those details requires effort, and i have laundry to pick up. so look, link to flickr, hooray!
SECRET SUNSHINE last tuesday i caught up with sally to go see secret sunshine at the new york film festival. it was an interesting movie, to say the least. long, and all kinds of fucked up. im too lazy to go into the details, but yea…fucked up.
OOLONG YO friday was a nice home-cooked meal at g+r’s place. eggplant parmesan and all kinds of italian goodness. <3 i also brought my tea set with me since my new thing is taiwanese tea. h’ok, backing up a bit…i always enjoyed having tea with one of my uncles in taiwan. and during my last trip a few weeks ago, he gave me some taiwanese oolong and pu-er tea to bring back with me. my moms a big connoisseur of tea too, so she gave me one of their extra tea sets to enjoy my tea with. woo! so i brought my tea set with me so we could enjoy some oolong after dinner (r <3’s tea also). i tried my best to emulate my uncles methodologies (hes a pro yo). the oolong was easy to brew…the pu-er not so much. i felt like i was brewing skunky mulch or something, but the tea turned out yum (whew). i think i need to confer with my mom again tho about the right amount of pu-er to toss into the pot.
REMAINDERS fishy came into the city satty to hang. no chess and coffee, but we did nosh some spanish at paella. shit, we even grabbed drinks at white rabbit then rewind for his brothers shecret birthday thingy. and sunday was a workday, so…meh, bummer. fin!
hmm, its been a while since a post eh. its been a bit hectic lately…blargh. i had to run off to taiwan for a week. i got back saturday jetlagged like a motherfucker, but didnt really get a chance to rest as the following work week kicked my ass. but hey, time doesnt stop, and the weekend couldnt come faster…whew.
everybody’s been slowly trickling out of nyc each successive year, and this past week was margies turn…boo-urns! we met up for one last coffee at 71 irving before she left nyc for dc. no time for an actual din either, since she still had alot of packing to do. sad face. =(
i had lunch saturday afternoon with sally at soba-ya. it was a super-nice day out too, so we just roamed aimlessly after lunch. after finally seeing what all the fuss at pinkberry was about (it was pretty yum), we met up with anna and continued roaming soho. i met up with marisol later at nite for a round (or two…or three) of drinks at firefly, where marisa was spinning that nite.
ok post done…i need to go trim my hair. its too bushy.
random cool celebrity sighting…and these arent even that common. except for woody allen maybe once or twice each year around tompkins square park. but thats not exactly anything to write home about. but whatever, we were headed to lunch today and actually ran into ang lee just outside talking to a crowd…woots! he was most likely screening lust, caution in the technicolor screening room. its actually weird that we dont see more actors, directors, whatever swinging by for screenings. meh. anyhoo, he looked busy. so i made like a fanboy, snapped a few pics, and then went and got stuffed at daddy’o’s.
yay for my fucking flat-screen finally getting here! in one piece that is. i ordered myself a 32″ aquos on or near my birthday (hey, nobody else was getting me something!) and it was actually sent off and delivered pretty fast. except when it was set up, plugged in, and then flicked on for the first time, the screen looked funny. like it was shattered…except the screen wasnt physically shattered, just the pixels. fucking a. i emailed the site i ordered it from, sent pics of the box and tv, (see dent here. see pixels looking all poop) etc. they sent fedex to pick it up, but didnt bother letting me know. so the first time the fedex guy showed up, i was like, hi…youre picking what up?. actually, i lie. it was saturday morning and it was more like “muuuuur…er?“
a week after the fedex guy comes back again and picks up the tv, im asking myself, k wheres the bloody replacement. i email them, theyre like, “oh noes! the receiving guy like refunded you instead lolz! want us to charge you and send it again?” and im like fuck yea, send that goddamn thing.
so nearly a month from the time i put in the order, i finally get my flat screen. and it works. and im happy. woots. my berfday was like a month ago. fuckfaces.
MOTHERLAND in other news, im heading back to taiwan next week. so if i had plans with you this weekend or next week…er, raincheck. ill see you when i get back.
(inaugurating the new flat-screen with a return of the king showing)
ha…ok, i have to backtrack a little bit to figure out wheres the last point in my charmed life i left off at. sometime after my berfday hmm. k, i met up with derrick for a bday dinner at mincas, a follow-up dinner with anna and sally at shabu tatsu, and even dora showed up in town from china for a late-night din at setagaya. i think there was a wings and drinkies in there too with mel, and dinner at casa mono with elaine too (who i hadnt seen in years)…and then its off to seattle. woot!
i got into seattle friday nite and had din with dave and milton, who i hadnt actually seen in hmm…3+ years i think. we then headed to their friends place for some poker, where i took out four or so players and eventually took third place. woot! yay for gambling! dave and i then met up with a few other cornellians for late drinks at this place called alibi’s(?) in the pikes market.
dave took me on a tour of seattles sites saturday. clam chowder at pikes market to start off with, then the first starbucks (woot!), the piers, pioneers square, and chinatown…or er, “international” town as they like to refer to it. we met up with daves fiance milly later too, then continued our tour thru the sculpture garden alongside the waterside. we had dinner later at wann with amy, another cornellian who was in town for the wedding too, then had drinks at qube, which dave and milton actually designed…oooh.
ANNA + SEANS WEDDING i met up with milton one last time for lunch, then headed off to anna and seans wedding. the wedding was being held at a vacation home of annas family north of seattle. the ceremony was being outdoors overlooking a beach…pretty nice. i think i wouldve enjoyed it more if i didnt spend the initial part of the event sticking tiki torches into the dense as fuck soil…ouchies. thanks alice!
the reception was gorgeous, but i had to leave a bit earlier than id have liked to catch a red-eye back to nyc. sad face…=(.
i got back to nyc early morning and pretty much passed out the second i got home. i met up with aisa and her friend later in the day to roam moma. ooh…richard serra. i took them around the east village, had a ton of yakitori at oh taisho, and relaxed the rest of the nite at 10 degrees.
*yawn* stupid jet lag. its 10pm and im yawning. im sure to most people, this is probably a normal thing. but not me damnit. i yawn at 2am, and not sooner! fuck fuck shit. im back in my apartment…back home in new york. blargh…amsterdam withdrawal. *sigh*
so looking at my old posts, i left off right before our rotterdam trip, then wandered off to random topics. go me. i deferred actual posts to my flickr pics…seemed more appropriate considering im usually at a loss for descriptions. but heres a summary anyhoo.
ROTTERDAM we took a studio field trip out to rotterdam (x) weeks ago to go see the le corbusier exhibit at the netherlands architecture institution. it was brief, but interesting. we then took a bike tour all around the city with our tour guide…whatsherface. yea, i didnt catch her name. super. i honestly cant remember the names of the places she took us to either, since they were either 20 letters long, or i just didnt pay attention well enough, considering i was too busy taking pictures of anything and everything. it was fun tho. we got back from rotterdam and i headed out to meet lysha for some late night partying. we drank and clubbed til i think 4am. memorys a bit foggy.
REMAINDERS other highlights of amsterdam…
i ran smack into the gay pride celebrations the one weekend i decided that i wanted to go out to shop and take pictures. the streets were jam-packed with parties, and the main gay parade sailed down the prinsengracht. craziness. i did however get to swing by droog design where i picked up a little gift for alice. so yea…alice if youre reading this, i gotcha something. now i just have to mail the bugger.
i also got to finally meet up with marisas other friend haiko the last week before i left. we met up for some comida de mexicana. drank, chatted, then relaxed with wine and beer at het molenpad on the prinsengracht (incidentally my favorite amsterdam bar). no hard partying because it was tuesday. and i met up with lysha one last time the following thursday for dinner at odeon. we just ate and hung out til i dont know when…then strolled along the canals.
im pretty sure ill go back to amsterdam soon enough…in a proper vacation-al manner (tho i didnt really mind at all the work/play aspect during my stay). personally, i think amsterdam suits me much better than a city like new york. i <3 mellow. the only things that kinda bothered me about amsterdam were 1. shops close waaaay too early. bastards. and 2. mosquitos along the canals. motherfuckers! anyhoo…sad face. bai bai amsterdam.
hmm…i wont lie, i havent really been “noting” what ive been doing these past few weeks. ive actually been looking to my flickr account to sort of remind me what ive done, instead of actually m3ntally noting the stuff ive done. ive been oot and aboot, dont worry. seeing the sites, drinking (alot of) beer…the usual. no hookers or coffeeshops yet tho.
marisa had passed me the info for her friend lysha who lives here in amsterdam, and since then we’ve actually hung out a number of times. shes shown me around some of her local digs, took me out to ijsburg (where she actually just recently bought a place), and even took me to eat ‘real” dutch food finally, since id honestly been eating nothing but pasta and curry dishes since getting here. you rock lysha.
the house has swelled in numbers again too recently…phil the new guy from london is still looking for an apartment, tang (web guy from taiwan) got here this past monday and is in amsterdam til september, and my boss just arrived too. so its like a frat house again…yar. on the bright side, i finally made my way over to chinatown with tang and picked up some chinky accoutrements. soy sauce, ramen, and frozen dumplings…word.
DEATHLY HALLOWS on a side note…harry potter woot! of course you knew i’d pick up the final chapter of harry potter. but since im here in europe at the moment, i had to get the fugly european edition where harry looks like a 30 year old IT guy on the cover. ill admit it…i burned thru the book at record pace. i picked up the book late saturday afternoon and finished it up by noon on sunday…har har! the story was pretty brilliant (hehe, i said “brilliant”), beginning pretty violently to be honest. along the way numerous pieces of the puzzle from past books were slowly pieced back together in this one. and not only was everything tied together and resolved very nicely, but everything made sense. i even patted myself on the back for guessing the inevitability of one of the major plot points…go me! and since i primarily think in cinematic terms, i think deathly hallows will make for one badass movie. i wonder if they’ll go for an R rating (for those that werent aware, the body count is pretty damn high).
the weather continues to be really frickin’ weird. itll be freezing and pouring rain in the morning, hot and sunny in the afternoon, then back to pouring and chilly by early evening. amsterdam weather is pms’ing.
TRANSFORMERS: THE ASS-KICKING the whole studio caught transformers after work on friday…woot! k, before i get to the movie, i should just mention that i <3 the american method of movie-going. buy online, pick up tickets, kick and fight your way to a good seat. here its just a mess. we waited in line for about half an hour in the rain while being nearly run over by the tram because the line extended out into the street. our reservations were also “wiped” by some computer glitch they had…that was super. on the upside tho, they assign seats, so we didnt have to fight for them. and they serve beer in the lobby…surprise. the theater itself was pretty nice. we caught transformers at the tuschinski, an art deco theater built in 1921 (its been since modernized). the interior was still pretty grand tho. i tried taking a panorama with my cell phone…the picture looks like shit.
the movie…woot, eye candy up the ass. the detail on the transformers were just crazy. sorry mel, but the newer “detailed” versions of the transformers are just infinitely better (for the cinema, mind you) than the blocky toy and cartoon versions. they wouldve just looked stupid and/or cheap. quote our resident animation impresario alex…(in a spanish accent) “fuuuuck. thats crazy! fuuuuck! fuuuuck…” etc etc. story-wise…whatever. seriously, what were you honestly expecting from a movie based on a toy line and cartoon series from the 80’s? for what it was, it rocked. i asked for nothing more. megan fox made it all the better too. oh and the reviews were right about another thing…shia lebeouwhatever rocked.
some criticism tho…the robots all looked similar, so it was hard to keep track of who was saying what and kicking the ass of whom. also, given some of the weaponry of the autobots and decepticons, how come they didn’t just go apeshit more often? blackout sure as fuck used his cannons every chance he had. he fucked up an entire military base! for instance, that massive blade that slid out of optimus primes forearm…he highlander’d bonecrushers head clean off with it! where was it during his fight with megatron? starscream was criminally underused too…bah. anyhoo, at least the sequels are guaranteed. i want to see some dinobots yo. and bring in the constructicons vs. omega supreme!
REMAINDERS the rest of the weekend was surprisingly nice. no freak thunderstorms or anything. i think the sun was even out…wow. i walked around with phil, a new guy from england who had just started last week. we roamed the area near the vondelpark, since he had been looking at apartment listings around that area. we roamed the neighborhoods saturday and sunday. saturday tho, something bad was kicking around my stomach, so we headed back to the house a bit earlier than anticipated. we made some good rounds on sunday tho, and even ate at the local wagamama’s…ha. we actually passed by it by accident. it wasnt as good as i last remembered, but still good enough to fill me up. this week should rock too. one of our web guys, tang, is flying in from taiwan this weekend. and before that, im meeting up with a friend of marisa’s here in amsterdam for foodage and drinks. woot.
