beach house

there are a few bands/musicians i revisit time & time again.  the beatles. elliott smith. rilo kiley. yo la tengo. epik high. & now i would say beach house will be up there in that special category.  there were periods (months) where i would just indulge myself in their albums ("devotion," "teen dream," & most recently "bloom" - which is my favorite). their songs so perfectly encapsulate this mood of ethereal, melancholic wistfulness that i crave.

ugh, so amazing.

ode to NY street performers

sometimes, days can get you down
living in a city that moves
at the speed of light

we find ourselves drowning
in just a blurry abyss
of work, schedules, business as usual.

and as we muster the strength
to carry our heavy legs
to our next course of action

you are there.

the little tiny accordion player
on the long stretch from the 7 to the F
- your music makes my feet lighter
and my steps a bit jaunty

the acapella quartet in union square
- your sweet melodies & harmonies
seem to cut through the bitter air

the sax player in the subway cart
- your expressive gestures & notes so blue
create the perfect rendition of "as time goes by"

i close my eyes and i'm not there
i'm not with the sullen chinese lady
holding grocery bags of cabbage
or the gaggle of teens, hyper
with energy suppressed from school hours
or the petulant toddler giving slobbery death stares

i'm in that place again
a place where time & energy & life stands still

no, you don't deserve a quarter
or even a dollar or two

you deserve much more -
for taking us into (or out of) a moment,
transcending us to a better place
and breaking our 'cycle' from time to time.

we thank you for your craft, your passion, your souls
your brilliance

people i don't get

i had a nice little impromptu play-date with a friend this week post-hurricane sandy.  it was so lovely - we ate beard papa's while we discussed our favorite books & music.

we were both sharing our disdain towards people who hate reading and/or books.  i might come off a little elitist and pretentious (as some people have already labeled me), but i don't care - because i think it's pretty sad that reading has become an "elitist" activity (especially considering that libraries are free to anyone). 

but living in this A.D.D. generation obsessed with instant gratification, taking the time to actually sit down to read a book (or even a long article) can be considered a tedious activity.  it's sad, yet understandable. but i think something that boggles my mind even more are people who are indifferent towards music.  i actually have a friend who once told me "i don't really care for music."  how...why... i don't even understand that statement.  it's like saying you hate puppies - it doesn't make sense. it's not human.

i remember i actually gave up music one time for lent.  i was able to manage, but it was a quite dreary 40 days.  yes - i became more aware of the outside world as i wasn't consumed in my own world within my headphones, but i felt my soul was starving for its usual musical accompaniment.

as mentioned before, i don't care too much about the details about my future wedding (if i have one), but the one detail i will fuss over will be the music.  i will not allow any overly cheesy/bad music at my wedding.  never!  i will curate each and every song on that playlist to perfection.

in Walter Isaacson's biography on Steve Jobs, there was a story about Jobs meeting Yo-Yo Ma.  upon hearing Yo-Yo Ma play a piece by Bach, Job's actually teared up and told him "You playing is the best argument I've ever heard for the existence of God, because I don't really believe a human alone can do this."


and speaking of yo yo, i love this (& many other) npr tiny desk concert series:

lord knows best

song has been in my head for a good three days.

advice to the boys

it's actually really simple

music is my boyfriend

For this lent season, I decided to fast music. I can honestly say this is the hardest thing I've ever fasted. I knew right when I decided to commit to it (and believe me it didn't come about easily...), that it wasn't going to be the same as fasting sweets or shopping. A friend told me I had to give up something that would "hurt." Or otherwise, what's the point, right? I crave songs sometimes the same way others crave food or sleep. When I walk around, ride the subway, do my work, go running- I always needed the background noise to fill in the void. Putting on my headphones allowed me to seep into my own dreamy, little world where life is made sweeter by pretty melodies and moods can be adjusted according to playlists.

I was especially dependent on music when I would run; it was like my fuel, providing me with a steady beat that would chug me along. When I first started running without music, I yearned to hear some Strokes or Phoenix in the background to get me pumped (I would get a little delirious and start humming or thinking of songs in my head). But my efforts were futile as all I could hear was the sound of my own heavy stomping and wheezing... not really the picker-upper I needed.

Though at first, it felt really empty, lifeless, and pretty 썰렁해 without having a constant soundtrack to my life, I've learned to appreciate the sound of silence. Which isn't actually silence at all... I have become more aware and mindful of my surroundings. I can actually hear and partake in the conversations around me at work. I take notice of the kids playing at the park or even the leaves on the trees (and more importantly, the horse poop on the ground). The stillness allows to me hear my own thoughts, and it's even opening up a better channel of communication with God.

Yet, 4/24 still seems so far away.

recommended by diana

Ah. I love jazz singers.

korean indie scene ♪ ♫

on a late summer night....

^that's gona be me soon...


^lykke's rendition, albeit incomprehensible at times, makes my heart hurt

사랑 빛

c.n blue's new single!



I <3 these boyz.

close your eyes and ill kiss you tomorrow ill miss you

I took my mom on a date last week to see RAIN, a Beatles cover band... it was pretty cute seeing all the middle-aged white folks reliving their golden years singing and bobbing to all the ditties.

I wish there was a band this day and age worth fangirling over so intensely. There are musicians I like and such, but nobody that really defines a generation like the Beatles.

I think I identify most with George, but would definitely date a Paul.

I should've been born in the 60's.

its the end of all strain, its the joy in your ♥

So I tutor my little niece Natalie and she writes journal entries for me every week.
This week, the topic was: "What are you scared of? When were you the most scared in your life?"

She's a little bugger. I went the Skinner's "operant conditioning" route and tried to bribe her into doing her homework by giving her stickers and candy, but I realized that punishments in the form of public humiliation are much more effective. I make her do the "abra cadabra" dance in front of her whole family. I'm so evil.


My friend jane made me this delightful origami version of the Little Prince. She said she had a bunch of leftover origami from her origami-crazed days (which is so very believable), and I'm the only person who would appreciate this kind of stuff. I <3 it!

and to commemorate the beginning of the best month of the year:

fobby but oh-so-prection ^_~

oldie but goodie

epik high mv's always have with this strange, creepy, ethereal quality. i love it.

adorable.

my favorite 12 year old:

oh the places you'll go!

I was driving 'round town today, and I realized how relative distance can be.

Back in high school, I used to think my friend jane lived SO far from me. In fact, my friends and I would call go as far as to calling her house "China."

"Jane wants us to go pick her up..."

"Ugh we seriously have to drive all the way to CHINA?!"

But in fact, according to Googlemaps, her home is only a measly 2.5 miles away from mine. That's less than a 5k mini-marathon! (I should know... I ran one this past Christmas...) But you have to understand this was back in the day when all my buddies lived within walking distance from each other... Back when all we knew was Wilson High School, Puente Hills Mall, Thomas S. Burton Park, etc. Back when Brea Mall was quite a venture and a drive to Third Street Promenade was practically considered a road trip.

But now that our worlds are bigger and better, "China" is only a busstop away.

Having explored the far ends of the earth (or more like bits and pieces of Europe on the most haphazard Spring Break tour & a few more substantial trips to countries/islands in Asia), my standards have gotten higher as well.

I have this wanderlust... hence my blog url and headline. And it doesn't help that I carry this (sometimes misleading) romantic notion of faraway places. That's why I was so happy living in Seoul for the 5 months I was there. Even if I would be spending an average day walking around on the streets all by my lonesome and reading a book on the subway, it would feel THAT much cooler because I was in a different country. If I did the same here, I would just feel like a loser.

That's why the thought of moving back to this small armpit of a hometown made me die a little inside. I associated this town with everything ugly. Ugly street signs. Ugly houses. Ugly people with ugly driving. Ugly fob haircuts.

And I tried everything in my power to stay out of it. But now I realized I cannot fight it any longer. Whenever there was the option of Fight vs. Flight, I always chose the latter. Even in my relationships, when I didn't want to deal with people, I just fled. The main reason I moved out to West LA initially was because of a conflict I didn't want to deal with at home.

But I realized I cannot flee anymore and must embrace the ugliness. Or find some kind of beauty in it- whatever that may be.

From the wise words of Alain de Botton in his essays "The Art of Travel":

Home, by contrast, finds us more settled in our expectations. We feel assured that we have discovered everything interesting about our neighborhood, primarily by virtue of our having lived there a long time. It seems inconceivable that there could be anything new in a place where we have been living for a decade or more. We have become habituated and therefore blind to it. De Maistre tried to shake us from our passivity. In his second volume of room travel, "Nocturnal Expedition around My Bedroom," he went to his window and looked up at the night sky. Its beauty made him feel frustrated that such ordinary scenes were not more generally appreciated: 'How few people are right now taking delight in this sublime spectacle that the sky lays on uselessly for dozing humanity! What would it cost those who are out for a walk or crowding out of the theatre to look up for a moment and admire the brilliant constellations that gleam above their heads?' The reason people were not looking was that they had never done so before. They have fallen into the habit of considering their universe to be boring- and their universe had duly fallen into line with their expectations."

There are some who have crossed deserts, floated on ice caps and cut their way through jungles but whose should we would search in vain for what they have witnessed. Dressed in pink and blue pyjamas, satisfied within the confines of his own bedroom, Xavier de Maistres was gently nudging us to try, before taking off for distant hemispheres, to notice what we've already seen.

ps. totally unrelated but i saw yann tiersen (amelie soundtrack guy) this month and he was amazing.

i want to marry him

tux + red beanie= <3

2008 in a nutshell

overplayed til my ears bled, but will always remind me of moments of the yesteryear.

asobi seksu- thursday
the kinks- strangers
she & him- i should have known better
thao- big kid table
thao- fear and inconvenience
beatles- if i fell
camera obscura- a sister's social agony
css- air painter
lykke li- little bit
lykke li- hanging high
black kids- i'm not gonna teach your boyfriend how to dance you
radiohead- bodysnatchers
clazziquai- romeo & juliet
rilo kiley- pull me in tighter
rilo kiley- capturing moods
MGMT- kids
bang gang- stop in the name of love
jason mraz- if it kills me
ting tings- be the one
chairlift- bruises
goldfrapp- happiness
M.I.A.- pretty much anything
jon brion- little person

nocturnal cravings

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with these intense, inexplicable cravings.

This one night last week, I woke up really wanting to eat cheese pizza. No toppings, just plain cheese. I NEVER crave cheese pizza. I think it's a sorry excuse for a pizza. But that night, I was almost tempted to call Pizza Hut at 3 in the morning. I ended up having pizza the next day, but it had toppings so I had to take them all off (wasn't quite the same).

Just last night, I woke up at 4am really itching to hear that song on that new ipod nano commercial (damn Mac and their smart advertising gimmicks!), which I later found out was Chairlift- "Bruises." At 4:00am, I got my laptop and downloaded it on limewire. I couldn't find the headphones with the lights off, so I turned the volume down to the lowest notch possible (so I wouldn't wake up Ana), put my ear to the speaker and satisfied my craving.

I've been listening to the tune all morning.

This all made me think of the Murakami story I read recently:
http://ctina.com/bakeryattack.html

Reading this made me really want a McDonald's Big Mac.