09 July 2009 @ 12:35 PM
love hurts 0 comments
being emotional is good for my music, but not so good for my health.
i learned from experience that being in love made me depressed, and being depressed led me to channel my emotions into my art, my music.
but then someone else told me that being in love makes you happy, and being happy gives you the energy to keep playing music no matter what happens.
which is it?
and why do i even have to be torn between the two?
FML.
06 July 2009 @ 9:06 AM
breakups and newport 10 comments
i was gonna blog about the breakup but one of my friends back home was gurgling about how may-zhee *barf* also blogged about some breakup and though it doesn't sound like a huge deal to you, it is a huge deal to me if i blog about a breakup right after some "big shot" blogs about a breakup.
funny i should mention this now, though, because the last time i wanted to blog about a breakup pinkpau and several other people also blogged about breakups, and i was like... ugh my life damn emo now after reading about so many breakups that i don't feel like publicizing mine anymore. (not a good word to use eh - "publicizing")
but forget that... i'm super busy with school so i can't be arsed to worry about relationships. you know i'm lying, but i'd rather not get whiny and sobby on you now. let's just say our big tiff was about things like black menthol and throwing up. sounds stupid but it is NOT.
MY FIRST MIDTERM WAS LAST WEEK AND I GOT AN A!!!!!!!!
after watching Transformers 2 till like 3am wtf. had to accompany Elijah, so i dragged Andrew out with me coz i needed good company and he struck me as the kind of person who wasn't so likely to make a lot of noise in the cinema. you know some people are super loud? always yelling and making comments and stuff... bei tahan man. makes me wish i could kill them all in the darkness of the theatre.
but yeah. last week was my ear training midterm, which we did in pairs, and my partner was betsy. it could have been jae cheol (super funny guy, just like everyone else at berklee) but hahaha cannot lah me and betsy stick together like super glue in ear training.
speaking of which. i am in Ear Training 4 because i tested out of all the other classes. which makes me pretty fucking awesome :) we have to sing chromatics in solfege, which i think is completely and utterly pointless (betsy agrees but andrew vehemently goes against us) as it messes around with your brain. there is no real point to solfege and the movable do. it's just like... the metric system and the american non-standard system. they both work for the people who use them respectively, but going from one to the other is a bitch. i was perfectly fine without solfege, but now i can't think in terms of note names anymore. i keep looking at F#s in D major and thinking, "Oh that's mi sharp!" ... which sounds really lame when you say it out loud.
sigh. i'm pretty poor now because of all these concerts i've been attending. it's good exposure, but it really fucks you up financially. the next big event i'm going to is the Newport Jazz Festival in... where else, Newport, RI. i thought, oh, you know, big event, everyone's gonna go, right? not quite. it's just me and andrew.
it's always just me and andrew wtf.
hopefully i'll find out that more people i know are going, because the more the merrier, right? RIGHT? RIGHT???
funny i should mention this now, though, because the last time i wanted to blog about a breakup pinkpau and several other people also blogged about breakups, and i was like... ugh my life damn emo now after reading about so many breakups that i don't feel like publicizing mine anymore. (not a good word to use eh - "publicizing")
but forget that... i'm super busy with school so i can't be arsed to worry about relationships. you know i'm lying, but i'd rather not get whiny and sobby on you now. let's just say our big tiff was about things like black menthol and throwing up. sounds stupid but it is NOT.
MY FIRST MIDTERM WAS LAST WEEK AND I GOT AN A!!!!!!!!
after watching Transformers 2 till like 3am wtf. had to accompany Elijah, so i dragged Andrew out with me coz i needed good company and he struck me as the kind of person who wasn't so likely to make a lot of noise in the cinema. you know some people are super loud? always yelling and making comments and stuff... bei tahan man. makes me wish i could kill them all in the darkness of the theatre.
but yeah. last week was my ear training midterm, which we did in pairs, and my partner was betsy. it could have been jae cheol (super funny guy, just like everyone else at berklee) but hahaha cannot lah me and betsy stick together like super glue in ear training.
speaking of which. i am in Ear Training 4 because i tested out of all the other classes. which makes me pretty fucking awesome :) we have to sing chromatics in solfege, which i think is completely and utterly pointless (betsy agrees but andrew vehemently goes against us) as it messes around with your brain. there is no real point to solfege and the movable do. it's just like... the metric system and the american non-standard system. they both work for the people who use them respectively, but going from one to the other is a bitch. i was perfectly fine without solfege, but now i can't think in terms of note names anymore. i keep looking at F#s in D major and thinking, "Oh that's mi sharp!" ... which sounds really lame when you say it out loud.
sigh. i'm pretty poor now because of all these concerts i've been attending. it's good exposure, but it really fucks you up financially. the next big event i'm going to is the Newport Jazz Festival in... where else, Newport, RI. i thought, oh, you know, big event, everyone's gonna go, right? not quite. it's just me and andrew.
it's always just me and andrew wtf.
hopefully i'll find out that more people i know are going, because the more the merrier, right? RIGHT? RIGHT???
30 June 2009 @ 8:14 AM
:) 6 comments
There is always this wonderful feeling of part-knowing and part-realizing that He's working in your midst, when you get thrown into new and precarious situations by yourself and are lost and confused and suddenly you run into a nice, helpful soul who just wants to help you out. (well maybe not always that willingly)
I am not a pansy, but I am not entirely independent either, and maybe that's why I always have to hang out with people older than me; guys in particular, because then it's kind of a given that your older male friends have better decision-making skills, are tougher mentally & emotionally, and know how to get the attention of waiters (I swear there is some international conspiracy going on between waiters to just ignore me outright when I call). I guess in that respect I am really a baby, haha.
So yeah. In all seriousness, I thank God for putting these amazing people in my life. The people whose niceness and help and company I don't think I could've done without.
gene at my farewell gathering in nyc, december 2008
I am not a pansy, but I am not entirely independent either, and maybe that's why I always have to hang out with people older than me; guys in particular, because then it's kind of a given that your older male friends have better decision-making skills, are tougher mentally & emotionally, and know how to get the attention of waiters (I swear there is some international conspiracy going on between waiters to just ignore me outright when I call). I guess in that respect I am really a baby, haha.
So yeah. In all seriousness, I thank God for putting these amazing people in my life. The people whose niceness and help and company I don't think I could've done without.
gene at my farewell gathering in nyc, december 2008
Here's to all the Gene Kims, the Nicholas Tings, and the Andrew Salims of this world :)
29 June 2009 @ 4:14 AM
help needed
the baby's started crying and i wish i could stop it but i don't know how. the tears are flowing but i don't have enough towels to soak them all up. the devil's been unleashed but i can't run after it fast enough.
normally i'd just slink off and say to myself: "i don't need anyone", but i'm going to try and get rid of that mentality and make myself believe there is no way i'm getting by on my own.
27 June 2009 @ 10:22 AM
no me jodas 2 comments
school and me really don't go together, despite how artsy the major. i like music, i like my friends and i love jamming, but the idea of having to "study" what i like kind of takes the passion out of everything. especially if you're being made to learn stuff you already know, i.e. basic music theory, notation, etc.
and also if you have to conform to american ways just because everyone here is too stupid to know what crotchets and semibreves are. hate how everyone expects us to adapt to their ways, yet it never happens the other way round.
but i will try harder here than i did at NYU. and i promise you that.
also, i thought i'd share with you this video of me playing a reprise of a theme i composed for a friend's grad film :) i originally composed it for chamber orchestra, then arranged a version for piano and euphonium. this was played some time back, around september 2008 (although i only got around to uploading it a few months later). it is one of my favorite film scores by far.
22 June 2009 @ 1:00 AM
dirty smoke 6 comments
*
even from a mile away
i know the smell of your black menthol
like cocaine it fills my head
and flies me away
i feel the brush of white linen
against bare skin
mine and that of an unknown figure
all i know is the familiar scent
that drugs me
a bastard and a bitch
did we know everyone was watching us?
that we were falling out of our little cocoon?
you promised there'd be no he said, she said
it's friday night and i can't smell no black menthol
what happened, and where did you go?
i walked out alone
without a single accessory on either arm
i was looking for something,
i don't know what
now the disco lights blind me
as i whirl into the trappings
of a dirty modern culture i abhor
beer reeks strong,
but it's not you.
*
even from a mile away
i know the smell of your black menthol
like cocaine it fills my head
and flies me away
i feel the brush of white linen
against bare skin
mine and that of an unknown figure
all i know is the familiar scent
that drugs me
a bastard and a bitch
did we know everyone was watching us?
that we were falling out of our little cocoon?
you promised there'd be no he said, she said
it's friday night and i can't smell no black menthol
what happened, and where did you go?
i walked out alone
without a single accessory on either arm
i was looking for something,
i don't know what
now the disco lights blind me
as i whirl into the trappings
of a dirty modern culture i abhor
beer reeks strong,
but it's not you.
*
16 June 2009 @ 12:29 AM
pictures and things 7 comments
i don't have much time to think of something particularly insightful to write about so i'll let the pictures dictate my blogging for today...
about 2 weeks ago amy & i decided on impulse to go shopping, and for some reason ended up walking all the way to charlesgate river. little did we know Earth Fest was on that weekend. it was packed with booths, people, performers and dogs. FREE FOOD GALORE!!!!
Boston is rainier than NYC, so people have to bring blankets / picnic mats out when they want to sit on the grass. this crowd is assembled to watch a local country act on the big stage at the esplanade.
Amy loves Urban Outfitters. i don't. they have the most quirky accessories and homewares ever, but i would never ever buy clothes from Urban... except on Black Day. the prices are effing steep, more than i'm willing to spend (and that's saying a lot, seeing as i normally rack up crazy shopping bills). even more expensive than ZARA wtf.
an example of Urban's stock of wonderfully creative homewares. they're not manufactured by Urban, but are sold there. these are drunk shot glasses :D
i have also been jamming like crazy, as you might have already been able to tell from my facebook pictures... lol.
i don't remember what we were playing, but i think it was hide, chase, seek - a song i composed for guitar. haha. alvin loves it and keeps asking me to transcribe it for him but i've been putting it off for a while. can't even find the original scores dammit :(
when we started out it was me, andrew (dr), betsy (dr), alvin (g) and vinnie (upright). but after some disastrous playing we came to the conclusion that we would never work out as a band because we don't all play the same stuff, vinnie plays only jazz, i suck at jazz, etc. so far we've added a whole lotta people to our "lineup", including dan, peter, elijah, amy (occasionally), and recently, jude.
i guess i gotta work a lot harder if i want to make our jam sessions a success. blegh. these days i'm practicing Summer Rain by Hiromi. it's actually one of her easier pieces imo - just because it's not as jazzy as the rest - and it's SUPER catchy. andrew, jude & i played it yesterday. was kinda messy but potentially killing. lol. i like jude. he has good ears, and i like people with good ears because it means they can play just about anything as long its within their technical ability / style. problem with alvin is, he can't do that. he needs charts, he needs to have every chord down before he starts (ooh it rhymes). he is a mad good guitarist though, i'll give him that.
bleh time for class. peace out.
about 2 weeks ago amy & i decided on impulse to go shopping, and for some reason ended up walking all the way to charlesgate river. little did we know Earth Fest was on that weekend. it was packed with booths, people, performers and dogs. FREE FOOD GALORE!!!!
Boston is rainier than NYC, so people have to bring blankets / picnic mats out when they want to sit on the grass. this crowd is assembled to watch a local country act on the big stage at the esplanade.
Amy loves Urban Outfitters. i don't. they have the most quirky accessories and homewares ever, but i would never ever buy clothes from Urban... except on Black Day. the prices are effing steep, more than i'm willing to spend (and that's saying a lot, seeing as i normally rack up crazy shopping bills). even more expensive than ZARA wtf.
an example of Urban's stock of wonderfully creative homewares. they're not manufactured by Urban, but are sold there. these are drunk shot glasses :D
i have also been jamming like crazy, as you might have already been able to tell from my facebook pictures... lol.
i don't remember what we were playing, but i think it was hide, chase, seek - a song i composed for guitar. haha. alvin loves it and keeps asking me to transcribe it for him but i've been putting it off for a while. can't even find the original scores dammit :(
when we started out it was me, andrew (dr), betsy (dr), alvin (g) and vinnie (upright). but after some disastrous playing we came to the conclusion that we would never work out as a band because we don't all play the same stuff, vinnie plays only jazz, i suck at jazz, etc. so far we've added a whole lotta people to our "lineup", including dan, peter, elijah, amy (occasionally), and recently, jude.
i guess i gotta work a lot harder if i want to make our jam sessions a success. blegh. these days i'm practicing Summer Rain by Hiromi. it's actually one of her easier pieces imo - just because it's not as jazzy as the rest - and it's SUPER catchy. andrew, jude & i played it yesterday. was kinda messy but potentially killing. lol. i like jude. he has good ears, and i like people with good ears because it means they can play just about anything as long its within their technical ability / style. problem with alvin is, he can't do that. he needs charts, he needs to have every chord down before he starts (ooh it rhymes). he is a mad good guitarist though, i'll give him that.
bleh time for class. peace out.