 |
Music •
Biography •
Press Kit •
Randomness •
Lyrics Gigs • Photos • Writing • Fun Stuff • Links • Contact |
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 Happy Birthday! Randomness is now officially four years old! This is one of the longest-running blogs I that I know of--and heck, that's longer than I've even been swing dancing. To close out our celebration, here's the last old post revival of the year, coming from December 15, 2004: Adventures in Northern Michigan, Part II When we left our heroes, they had battled their own forgetfulness, found a new friend in a one-handed guitarist, conquered the mysterious BUMP, and realized just how directionally challenged they were as they approached Crisis #4. Crisis #4, also known as "Get me to the church on time," started at 8pm when the kind lady at the gas station/general store we'd stopped at for directions informed Alex that Petoskey was an hour and a half drive. And the show at Harmony Grounds was supposed to start in an hour. But never fear, I was borrowing my mom's Jeep for the weekend and even non-existent visibility and slippery roads can't stop a frantic musician armed with four-wheel drive. Or as Alex put it, "Come rain or shine, sleet or snow, we will not go slower than 80 miles an hour or we'll probably die." I think I scared him; I was doing 85-90mph on roads neither of us could see. (Side note: somewhere in that time, we resolved Crisis #1 when we finally managed to get ahold of Steph. Apparently her mom needed her and she hadn't called us because she figured we'd call her--a reasonable assumption that fell apart when she left her phone off all day.) Unfortunately, the Jeep guzzles gas like a camel drinks water, and four-wheel drive doesn't help. I refused to stop until we got to the venue, even though it meant driving on E longer than I was comfortable with. But like the good car it is, the Jeep didn't decide to choke until we were parking in front of the coffeeshop--a which point it coughed loudly in protest. In a totally uncharacteristic verbalization, I swore and Alex was amused. Then came the next funny moment: the realization that no one was in the café. Apparently they're usually packed on Saturday nights, but that day the shop was dead. "We haven't had a food order since 4pm." So Alex and I played for an audience of one (thanks Neil!), or two if you include the owner. Some stats to consider the next time you think musicians make money: I was playing for tips, and our tips totaled $7. Total spent on gas to that point: $50. Yup, I'm raking it in. But hey, at least I have fun stories to write about. Luckily, we didn't have to spend money on a hotel. Following my habit of crashing with random people (another side-effect of becoming a hardcore swing dancer--this becomes totally normal), the café's cook took us in for the night, and we found all these crazy connections with his girlfriend Julie (at least I'm assuming she was his girlfriend). Alex and Julie bonded over being psych majors. And going to Oakland University. And thus had studied with three of the same professors. Julie and I bonded over being theatre majors. And familial ties in Redford. It's so cliché, but whenever something like that happens you can't resist the urge to say, "It's a small world." The next day, the incredible staff of Harmony Grounds hooked us up with free food (thanks) and after jotting notes on Alex's computer so we'd remember the extent of our adventures, we drove to Saginaw. With our history of directional challenges we made sure to leave plenty of time for the trip. Too much time, in fact. We arrived in Saginaw two hours before we could get into the venue. So I called my friend Loren, whose parents still live in that city, and asked for recommendations on how to kill a couple of hours. As it turns out, there isn't much to do in Saginaw. But he did manage to direct us to the section of town with a mall and strip mall (I'll save the commentary on suburban sprawl for another day)… and Alex and I found ourselves in the same parking lot that contained the Guitar Center that had saved me the day before. After an excursion to Best Buy that resulted in Alex acquiring a new--ridiculously cheap--hard drive, we decided to drive to the church and run some songs in the parking lot. While there, we met a couple of junior high kids who were waiting for their youth group to start, including Matt, who would later become an official groupie (at least that was the agreed-upon price for allowing him to borrow my cell phone in order to listen to its flip-open and -close tones for the rest of the night. But he didn't get to keep it as long as he could have--he was so happy about the noises it makes that an unknown adult got tired of hearing the constant brrrring! and took it away). The kids at Peace Lutheran were hilarious and the staff was wonderful--and I even got to play a grand piano instead of my keyboard that night, which is a real treat. So all went well and we headed back to Ann Arbor in a much more relaxed state of mind than the one in which we'd begun the weekend. ^ Top | 7:43 PM | | | 
Sunday, February 26, 2006 In Anticipation of Bloggy Birthdays, Part III For those that have just joined us, we're continuing to celebrate Randomness's fourth birthday by re-posting some old entries. This post comes from June 19, 2003: Sainte-Chapelle et les Arts I can't believe I've only got a week and a half left in Paris. There's still so much to do--everything from old cathedrals to musuems to see, people from all over the world to talk to, French to practice... in the beginning I thought that over a month sounded like a long time, but it's not, even though I've only been in one city for that entire time. I think I need to come back for at least a few months or a year (there are more reasons to this than listed above, so if you want details ask me sometime). One of the things I most appreciate about France is the love and wide availability of art: Parisians are interested in architecture, literature, and "high art," but even a walk in the Metro stations or on the streets finds musicians and performers in abundance. Last night as I was on my way to check email--unfortunately a failed trip since the internet cafe was closed--I saw a group of 20 college-aged kids playing jazz at Fountaine St. Michel; a few steps away I saw a crowd gathered around two artists creating work on the spot with spray paint (it's surprising how amazing their pictures turned out). Those are things you can find in any major city, but what you won't find in America are architectural wonders like Sainte-Chapelle, built by Louis IX to house relics of the Passion and prove French superiority. While I was admiring the stained-glass windows in Sainte-Chapelle the thought occured to me that whether the result is pulp fiction or classical music, it's clear that human beings love to create. As Francis Schaeffer writes, "Being in the image of the Creator, we are called upon to have creativity. In fact, it is part of the image of God to be creative, or to have creativity. We never find an animal, non-man, making a work of art. On the other hand, we never find men anywhere in the world or in any culture in the world who do not produce art. All people are to some degree creative. Creativity is intrinsic to our mannishness.... [Artworks are] expressions of the nature and character of humanity." God, the supreme artist, enjoys creating beauty and even whimsy--why else a peacock's tail, the Swiss Alps, a duck-billed platypus? We as humans enjoy these things not because they have practical purpose, but because they capture our imaginations. And in imitation of God, we create ourselves; not out of nothing, as he does, but out of existing materials. We shape Notre Dame, the Venus de Milo, folksongs. We build l'Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower and skyscrapers and houses. The fact is that our creativity reflects the creator himself and the beauty we see, the beauty we make, reflects his beauty as well. Of course, we, being fallen, also reflect that in our art, in the agony of Rodin's sculptures and the fragmentation of Picasso's paintings; we are lost, we feel alone, we are reaching for something but fall short. But that too points to our Creator, to our knowledge that all is not as it should be. We are a broken, needy race but capable of such wonders at the same time. We are a thirsty people and only in him can that be satisfied. And then we will truly create beauty, free from the shackles of our falleness and sin. ^ Top | 11:19 PM | | |
In Anticipation of Bloggy Birthdays, Part II Continuing an annual tradition, I'm resurrecting some old posts in honor of Randomness's fourth birthday. Today's post comes from November 9, 2004: Adventures in Canada, Part II Or how to pretend you've been to Europe for a weekend without getting in a plane. Read Part I here. While we were in the restaurant, the torrents started. And they didn't last long, but apparently some of the streets in Stratford (European Name #1) are really low and we plowed through river after river. Then came the sea. And the car drowned. We were buried in water three feet deep--if we'd have opened the doors the interior would have flooded immediately--and the car stalled. And wouldn't start again. After a slew of frustrated tries and anxious prayer, we were finally back on the road, contending with foggy country highways so dark you couldn't see more than five feet in front. Between calling Alex's father, a former mechanic, at 1:00am, directional confusion, crossing the Thames River (European Name #2) twice, worrying that the car was going to die--the "Check Engine" light alternately flashed and stayed solid--and non-existent visibility, it took us over three hours to make it to London (European Name #3) and Steve's apartment, what should have been a half-hour drive. (During the last 20 minutes of that drive, Alex and Melanie started laughing hysterically for unknown reasons. And couldn't stop.) We were greeted at the door by Daryn, whom I'd never met... and no Steve. So after deluge of stories about our misadventures to the poor stranger, who very kindly humored our need for not-us interaction after being cooped up in small spaces too long, we decided to hunt down our host, who had left the apartment hours ago in an attempt to guide us to the appropriate street by standing outside. Luckily, finding him was not as difficult as it very nearly could have been. We spent the next morning eating fresh scones (courtesy of Steve and his culinary skills) and learning the merits of various types of teas and how one should brew them for optimal flavor (courtesy of Steve and his virtu) and the afternoon tinkering with the car, which was still unhappy, exploring Stratford, and consuming chocolate. That evening's production was again disappointing; as one reviewer put it, "The production of Macbeth... is not the worst one I've seen, nor is it the best. But it does have one unique distinction: It's the most boring." Lucy Peacock (Lady Macbeth) was overwrought and peaked too quickly; by the end of the play, when she becomes insane, she had nowhere to go--which was a shame, because that part is one of the most coveted by actresses in theatrical repertoire. Graham Abbey (Macbeth) was wonderful when he was enraged, but lacked the ability to enliven the rest of his speeches or understand the inner turmoil of his character. However, the lighting breathed life into a minimal set and Sarah McVie (Lady Macduff) gave a vocally beautiful performance. After the production, we stopped in to Molly Bloom's for a dinner of fish and chips, one I'd been anticipating for weeks prior. We were lucky enough to catch an Irish band, and Alex made more new friends by singing along to songs he didn't know (in a noisy pub, who can tell?). By then Melanie was falling asleep, so we headed back to London--in a normal timeframe, since Steve was there to direct us--and dropped Melanie off at the apartment. The rest of us had a wonderful conversation on relationships in a café, hiding from the madness of Devil's Night in a college town and the requisite scantily-clad sorority types. The next morning saw another breakfast of scones and tea (though since I was sleeping Steph ate my share); we finally left our Canadian friends in the afternoon and made the trek back to Ann Arbor. Too late we decided to take the Detroit tunnel home rather than Port Huron (a desolate drive) and spent some time in confusion, heading in the right direction but on unknown roads, trying to find the freeway that went toward Windsor (European Name #4) before it was entirely out of the way. We'd been driving through nothingness long enough that everyone was concerned that we were lost (and we were nearly out of gas and hadn't seen a station almost since we'd left London). Alex was calling a friend near a computer for internet directions when Steph saw a sign for Florence (European Name #5), a small town with a few houses and a general store. Finally, an inkling of civilization. And to someone who spends little time in the country, it was just that: an inkling, albeit with nice people. The little aluminum-clad store was fronted by two ancient gas pumps and a third of it was sectioned off into a greasy restaurant. But we got directions and loaded up on chips, chocolate, and cookies and were back on our way, stopping in Windsor for Chinese food. We crossed the border easily--the guard didn't even check our IDs, quite a different experience than the one I'd had trying to get back into the country a year before. Then we were home, and back to life in its normal shape. ^ Top | 12:11 AM | | |
Saturday, February 25, 2006 In Anticipation of Bloggy Birthdays, Part I Spring Break at the University of Michigan. It was an otherwise uneventful day, and, as usual, it felt more like winter. But on February 28, 2002, Randomness was born to little fanfare--at that point in the brief history of the internet, few people were blogging. I had a friend question why I would even bother: "Someone's going to want to read your random thoughts online?" Apparently, yes. And blogging has become part of everyday vocabulary. In what has become an annual tradition, we'll be celebrating Randomness's birthday by revisiting some old posts. I was reminded of this post, from February 3, 2005, in a conversation tonight about grammar: The following is a response to the King of the Blogs challenge, "You have just been chosen as the King of the Blogs. Write a speech beginning you[r] reign of terror." Marriage. Marriage is what brings us together today: marriage, that blessed arrangement, that dream within a dream. Oops, wrong speech. Ah yes, I was supposed to prepare my coronation address. Coronation Address Friends, Romans, countrymen… lend me your ears. Anyone who just groaned shall be summarily beheaded. No pardons shall be issued, and no mercy shall be granted. Thus begins my reign in the blogosphere. If you were content, even complacent before, tremble now. My authority is unquestionable and whatever I say shall be law. As king, my first, most important, priority shall be to rid the internet of native English speakers who, for some reason unbeknownst to their former teachers, never mastered the fundamentals of the English language, as evidenced by their atrocious writing. Nobility and peasantry alike, this cannot be tolerated. When one cannot tell the difference between “whether” and “weather,” “waist” and “waste,” “herd and heard,” the complete and utter downfall of the kingdom is at hand. Typos are understandable, if not entirely excusable, but the inability to use correct syntax is despicable. All such bloggers shall be beheaded. The mainstream press is also to be executed when committing such violent injustice to the English language (yes, I did read an article by Fox News confusing “precedent” with “president"). Off with their heads! My second order of business shall be to rid the internet of gratuitous animated gifs, wildly busy backgrounds, and neon colors incoherently piled on top of one another. Animated gifs are not bad in and of themselves, but when one page sports two instances of ten hopping bunnies in a row, something is wrong. There is no excuse for backgrounds that make text unreadable. And like the gifs, neon colors are not bad in and of themselves, but when a blog’s color scheme looks like something created by template in the stone ages of the web, again, there is no excuse. All such pages shall be wiped from collective memory and their creators shall be sent to design school. Third, I wish to reward those faithful companions that have allowed me to rise to kingship. Notably, Bad Example, News from the Great Beyond, and The Smarter Cop [Edit: The Smarter Cop no longer seems to be posting], judges in their most excellent tournament, shall be recompensed with my eternal gratitude and positions as governors in my illustrious kingdom. You will find me to be a stringent potentate, but a worthy one. May my reign, and the glory of the blogosphere that shall be revealed, endure forever. May the Force be with you. ^ Top | 12:08 AM | | |
Thursday, February 23, 2006 Musings Perhaps it's just melancholy. I got an email yesterday from my friend Cat, who's leaving Ann Arbor--she was offered a promotion on Friday, decided to take it on Monday, and is leaving in a few days for the west side of the state. Tonight I stopped by her going away party at Arbor Brewing Company and couldn't help but wonder how many people will realize that I've left town when I move to Chicago in the spring--and to be honest, these musings seem a little self-absorbed, perhaps even silly, in light of my schedule today (which included going to Cafe Felix with Strobe, Sasha, and James, dinner with Hester, a dance concert with Art, and playing music with Strobe and Tom). But I can't help but think about it anyway. I wonder if I've done the right thing, staying in Ann Arbor so long, getting rather disconnected from its goings-on over the last half a year. On the one hand, traveling so much keeps me from getting stir-crazy, which happens easily, and I love visiting friends in other cities and the adventures in general. I've stayed here two years longer than I originally planned. On the other, I've been gradually distancing myself from friends and groups here--and it's a consequence that in many ways was never intentional. But when you're rarely home on the weekends, you fall out of "the loop." It's a part of life, but I've always thought it's sad how easy it is to stop being a part of others' reality--sure, you may have once been close, but now you're a few steps away from not existing. That's how it feels with a lot of my old friends from InterVarsity--they're in town, I'm in town, but we don't see much of each other or make efforts to. I guess another part of the story that makes me a little wistful is that part of the reason Cat is moving is to be nearer her boyfriend. Last year at this time she was still dating her ex, and they were serious too--but it looks like this one is really going to be it, which makes me wonder about myself and whether I'll find the One. We like to tell people that someone is out there for them, and Christians are fond of spiritualizing that into "God has someone planned for you" or even better, "God created someone for you"--but we never say, "God might want you to be single your entire life, but if that happens it will be ok, because it will be where you're most happy, most fulfilled." Few people want to hear that, even though it's more true than the plastic drivel we're fond of spewing. Very few people don't want to get married one day, and it's weird to watch so many people younger than you taking the plunge (granted, I think this would be less of an issue if I knew less Christians, because they tend to get married younger--read: right out of college). While I'm happy for all of those engaged and married friends, things don't look like they're headed that way in my immediate future. Maybe my life just doesn't seem exciting in comparison to friends who have spent almost a year backpacking in Europe. Although I know the whole music thing sounds exotic enough to most people, and I really do enjoy it. I love spending so much time in Chicago, and the "real job" seems promising enough, at least as it relates to time I can spend pursuing my singer-songwriter career. So for the most part, I'm reasonably content where I am--but at night it's so easy to muse about all the what-ifs. ^ Top | 10:49 PM | | |
Sunday, February 19, 2006 Epicurean Delights One of the things I love about big cities is the availability of different types of cuisine. Hanging out in Chicago can be a culinary adventure--there's all sorts of stuff here that I've never had before, which is a rarity being the exploratory type I am and growing up in Singapore. Today I had Colombian food for lunch and tried rabbit for the first time (I never say this but it honestly does taste like chicken--just stringier). Colombians apparently aren't very creative or fancy--a typical meal consists of roast or pan-fried meat, a potato, yucca fries, rice, plantains, and salad (no dressing). It's good though. Yesterday I had dim sum (Chinese) and the previous night I had Persian food, which is surprisingly good. I ordered duck in pomegranate sauce and tried some of Bryan's quail since I hadn't had that before (it has a similar texture to pork and tastes a little like lamb). So in the last month I've been to restaurants representing Belize, China, Ethiopia, Colombia, the US, Iran, Mexico, and Vietnam. It's like traveling without the passport. ^ Top | 8:40 PM | | |
Thursday, February 09, 2006 The Perfect Woman A few different people have sent me Sunday's Dilbert comic--Jane sent a hard copy for me addressed to Bryan (I'm staying with him for the next week and a half--yup, I've been in Chicago for a week already training for the "real job," but more on that later) and apparently Ricke's mom sent him a link to send me. So it seems a number of people are quite well aware of my love of science fiction, which includes an obsession with Battlestar Galactica. In light of this, I jokingly asked if I was the perfect woman. An engineer's response? Let's see.... hot.. check. Intelligent... double check. Sane... well, I suppose as much as as anyone could be called that. Like sci-fi.... check. PLUS you have mad crazy musical talents. You'll get no arguments on the perfect woman description from me. :-)Apparently this is why so many of my guy friends are engineering types. ^ Top | 3:43 PM | | |
Monday, February 06, 2006 Commentary on the State of the Union, Part II This is the second part of my thoughts on the State of the Union address--Bush's statements are in italics. Part I is here. With so much in the balance, those of us in public office have a duty to speak with candor. This is coming from Bush? He’s notorious for withholding information and inaccurate implications. While I don’t think he technically lies that often, he has a tendency to see things his way so strongly that no other alternatives are allowed. And, as we honor our brave troops, let us never forget the sacrifices of America's military families. Agreed. Even those who have see problems with the war should not forget the soldiers. I ask you to reauthorize the Patriot Act…. I have authorized a terrorist surveillance program to aggressively pursue the international communications of suspected Al Qaida operatives and affiliates to and from America. These measures set dangerous precedents. Say we trust Bush. Once he’s out of office, will we trust the next president not to misuse that power? What prevents operatives from spying on normal Americans? The administration is under fire right now because they were spying on Americans without getting court approval. The only alternative to American leadership is a dramatically more dangerous and anxious world. We are not the saviors of the world. While I do think we should take some responsibility for the world around us, it’s arrogance to presume that we are the salvation of the planet. Because America needs more than a temporary expansion, we need more than temporary tax relief. I urge the Congress to act responsibly and make the tax cuts permanent. But on the other hand, we're paying interest on an increasing national debt. And Bush’s new budget proposal increases funding to the military (outside of what we’re spending on Iraq and Afghanistan) for things like the National Missile Defense Program, which would not have stopped 9/11 (while cutting funding to many other, debatably more important areas). Military spending during the year of his election was higher than it was at the height of the Cold War, even adjusting for inflation. Is this a responsible use of our resources? So tonight I ask you to join me in creating a commission to examine the full impact of baby boom retirements on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. This commission should include members of Congress of both parties and offer bipartisan solutions. We need to put aside partisan politics and work together and get this problem solved. This actually seems reasonable. Can you imagine what we could get done if the two parties would work together? ^ Top | 4:05 PM | | |
Friday, February 03, 2006 Commentary on the State of the Union, Part I My somewhat jaded thoughts on the State of the Union address--Bush's statements are in italics. Abroad, our nation is committed to an historic, long-term goal: We seek the end of tyranny in our world. Call me cynical, but historically--and currently--we have supported dictators and tyrants; a quick sampling includes Heydar Aliyev and his son (Azerbaijan), Islam Karimov (Uzbek), Mobutu Sese Seko (Congo/Zaire), Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (the last Shah of Iran), Augusto Pinochet (Chile), and even Saddam Hussein himself for years. On September the 11th, 2001, we found that problems originating in a failed and oppressive state 7,000 miles away could bring murder and destruction to our country. Dictatorships shelter terrorists, and feed resentment and radicalism, and seek weapons of mass destruction. It's clear that the implication here is Iraq, but in reality 9/11 was about Al-Qaeda and Afganistan--we went after Iraq afterward because we were scared. Iraq was disobeying UN sanctions again and again and we thought they might have WMDs, a fear related to--but not created by--9/11. Or at least that was the stated reason. But that's still not the same thing as deciding that Hussein was dangerous because he sheltered terrorists. Democracies replace resentment with hope, respect the rights of their citizens and their neighbors, and join the fight against terror. Democracies do want the people want, assuming that elections aren't hindered by threats and fear. But a vote elected Hamas to power, a group not exactly known for respecting their neighbors and fighting terror--and that's legitimate from a democractic point of view, which may not always fit in with Bush's idealism. And there is no honor in retreat. Is that true? I think we should stay in Iraq until we figure out how to extricate ourselves without failing the Iraqis (the man who makes a mess should clean it up), but there are times that retreat is necessary--if you're losing a battle and need to regroup, retreat may even be wise. When they murder children at a school in Beslan or blow up commuters in London or behead a bound captive, the terrorists hope these horrors will break our will, allowing the violent to inherit the Earth. Bush's use of Biblical allusion is always interesting. The original phrase was "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." We are the nation that saved liberty in Europe, and liberated death camps, and helped raise up democracies and faced down an evil empire. While this is true (although worded somewhat arrogantly), we have to recognize our country's unsavory past as well. We helped to topple Iran's first democratic government. The CIA provided $1 million in covert aid to parties in Chile that helped depose the elected President Allende. And let's not forget that we were condemned for an "unlawful use of force" in Nicaragua by the World Court (which we now don't officially recognize, even though we accepted their findings prior to that case). We're on the offensive in Iraq, with a clear plan for victory. I seriously question the last half of that statement. I hope we have a plan for victory, but I'm not sure that we actually do. Hindsight alone is not wisdom. And second-guessing is not a strategy. This may be the most profound line in the speech, and does ring true. However, critical analysis is important lest we repeat our mistakes. ^ Top | 10:58 PM | | |
Wednesday, February 01, 2006 Reality is Stranger A friend pointed this out to me, and I checked the website to verify: Items found on Reciprodate's profile maker (i.e. describe yourself): Body type: Gargantuan Ethnicity: Elven/Dwarven Languages: Ferengi, Klingon, Wookie Occupation: Clandestine Ops/Secret Agent, Bum/Panhandler Income Level: $0, $1, $2-24,999 Smoking Behavior: Smoker/Joker/Midnight Toker Are they serious? ^ Top | 6:55 PM | | |
|
