Forgot to also mention, that my scene in the second episode I consulted on for Untold Stories of the ER, has been cut!!! So goes the rise and fall of the aspiring young hollywood actor. Maybe it was because I looked directly into the camera on accident as I was exiting my scene. Moglandor told me, that is a big no no. Maybe I need acting classes?
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(Malkmus)
Unfortunately, my postings will be quite spartan until we get the hard drive fixed, or load a photo editing program onto our newly fixed laptop. This has been a pretty cool week. On Tuesday, caught Steve Malkmus and the Jicks at the El Rey. He played his usually jangly and obtuse, indie rock. I think I liked it better at the All Tomorrows Parties show when he performed outdoors next to the Queen Mary. Musically it was better though this time. The next day we caught the Raveonettes at the Spaceland. Bumped into Kevin from Mixy's work, and Jarschick there. The show I thought was fantastic, but again the spector of fatigue hit us. Maybe, I'm just getting older. This weekend was very exciting. My cousin Rae got married up in the bay area. Mixy and I drove up on Saturday. After the rehearsal dinner, we met up with Caroline and Skorn. Caroline is 6 months pregnant. I got a cool picture that maybe I'll put up later of their new baby room. Before the wedding on the next day, we saw Margaret and her husband Chris. We also met her new 8 month old baby, Andrew. They are living the domestic suburban bliss lifestyle out in Pleasonton. The wedding was pretty cool. It was kind of a nightmare when we had to set up cloth covers for benches at an outdoor park amphitheatre for the wedding. It turned out to be a lot harder than we expected. Luckily my cousin Walter came up with an ultra-fast taping technique. It was truly a marvel to see. Wish I could've posted the pictures. Rae and her fiancee Adam are really artistic people. For their wedding invitations they photographed themselves, recreating movie posters from some of their favorite films. They had "In the Mood for Love", "Top Gun", "The Two Towers", "Casablanca", "Goldfinger", and "Hero". My favorite was the Hero one.
We headed back down to SoCal yesterday. Kapono had a very enjoyable trip with us. We stopped at Casa de Fruta, and a very cool and beautiful reservor, called the San Luis Reservoir, which is close to Gilroy where the 152 connects the 101 to the 5. Ended the day with band practice with Gravely Disabled for our upcoming July 3rd show.
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Not much going on lately, just worked quit a few shifts. Diagnosed DeQuervain's tenosynovitis (click here to find out more) twice this weekend, which was cool. Got to use the Finkelstein's test. Talked to Greyhound (in Atlanta), and Juddy today. Drove to Toro's house with Kapono this afternoon to pick up my suit which I left with the in-laws in Taiwan, cause I'm going to my cousin's wedding this weekend.
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Ash
Saw the Irish pop-punk sensation Ash yesterday with Mixy, Toro, Jarschick, and BabyRuthless. It was at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood. Somehow I thought that I had been listening to Ash since 91, but I guess that's impossible since I looked up that their first album that I bought, came out in 1996. I remember enjoying that album, and seeing them open for Weezer at Lupo's. I have not become an obsessed fan in the interim time however, as Toro and Mixygirl are. They have become superfamous in Europe though in the meantime. The show last night was really cool and high energy. I like that they play pop punk but without any sort of cynicism or irony. It seems that most alternative bands are too embarassed to rock out these days. There was also a decent sized mosh pit going, surprisingly for this kind of music. I joined in for a few numbers. Unfortunately in the span of 30 seconds, I twisted my ankle, got my glasses knocked down to the floor, then fell down to the floor myself. Fortunately as I blindly groped for my glasses on the floor, I was able to find them. It reminds me of the time I went with Shopping and Frank down to NYC during undergrad to check out Public Enemy, Ice T, and House of Pain. I think my glasses got knocked off and were pretty quickly recovered, but my shoe was 5 feet away as I lunged for it.
Well Hollywood shows have the added bonus of the mandatory celebrity sightings. We had in the words of Toro, a Tier 1 sighting also. None other than Quentin Tarantino was at the bar before the show. I'm not sure if he stayed for the show though, because I looked for him everywhere after that. I was going to try to convince him to slam dance. We had just seen Quentin on TV earlier in the evening at the MTV movie awards. He was still wearing the same hoodie sweatshirt. He seemed really talkative and hyper just like in all his TV appearances and interviews.
Added bonus for Weezer fans was the sighting of former Weezer bassist Matt Sharp. Some would argue that it's no coincidence that all the Weezer albums since he left the band have not been as good. On further computer news, the repair people told me that the hard drive is totally fried. This means that all our recent Hawaii, Vegas, and Kapono photos have been lost (haven't backed those up yet). We heard that we may be able to send the broken drive to a recovery specialist to try to get back some files. Unfortunately it's really expensive cause they have to open the hard drive up in like an airtight room that doesn't have any dust particles in it.
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Taiwan
On May 26th, Mixy, Toro, and I headed out for Taiwan for Grandpa Wu's funeral. The plane ride wasn't that bad. We got business tickets on EVA air. Business is key for transpacific flights. We all enjoyed watching the movie version of Phantom of the Opera on the way over. Toro sat by some dude who was a camera man for American Idol. He had a really bad Ryan Seacrest style haircut. (Bo Bice RULES!!!)
After arriving at Taipei, we took another airplane towards southern Taiwan, and then we were driven to Tainan. Tainan is the old capital of Taiwan. It is known for more of a traditional feel than Taipei. Here's a picture of a typically busy Tainan street, and a residential alley on the right.
For the days before the funeral, we mostly just stayed inside Grandpa Wu's house. It was in the 90's and really humid outside, so being inside was quite a relief. We ate only vegetarian meals because it is customary to do so in Bhuddist mourning tradition. I have to say that I didn't mind it that much. The vegetables tasted quite good. In the past we've had some horrible bhuddist vegetarian meals where tofu is made to look like many different meats, including sushi and chicken. That kind of meal I learned, is quite nasty. there wasn't much to do other than reading and playing video games. We did make one trip out to the department store though (asian department stores are awesome).
I also really enjoyed walking by a cool jade carving of a cob of corn with mice crawling on it. It was next to the room we were staying in.
The day before the funeral, the whole Mixy/Toro/Greedy clan piled into a bus and headed toward the countryside. We walked past a duck farm and a nice pond to pay our respects at Grandma Wu's burial site.
Grandma Wu's burial site is quite peaceful and beautiful. One interesting thing to note is that decorating the area, are pictures made of tiles elaborating on scenes of filial piety.
The most bizarre such picture showed a scene of a son and a father. The son as you can see in the closeup on the right, has taken off his shirt. This is so that the mosquitoes in the room will bite him, and not his father. I dub this man, mosquitoe man.
The next morning we woke up early for Grandpa Wu's funeral. The morning started with bhuddist monks chanting before we proceeded to Southern Taiwan University of Technology. The funeral was held in a large gymnasium. There were hundreds of people there to pay their respects. The stage was set up beautifully, the main focus being a huge picture of Grandpa Wu superimposed on a lush scene of greenery and a lake. The ceremony continued with more chanting from bhuddist monks. The chanting created a really hypnotic and for me, a psychedelic-like atmosphere. Important speakers during the ceremony included Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian, and the senior monk from Taiwan's famous Fo Guang Shan Bhuddist temple. Before the ceremony ended, each of the attendees had to come up to the front in groups of 50 or so to bow to the family as we bowed back. It was a very formal and interesting cultural experience.
After the ceremony, family members took a bus to Fo Guang Shan Temple. It was about an hours drive. The scenery we drove through was breathtaking. As we neared the temple, we passed through mountains covered with lychee and bamboo forests.
We exited the bus and headed up the hill of the temple flanked on both sides by chanting monks. It felt kind of like we were in an old chinese movie with the grand scene of rows and rows of monks. After going through different levels of shrines, we arrived at the Longevity Shrine on the eastern slope of Fo Guang Shan. It overlooks the Gaoping river, and is the final resting place of Grandpa Wu. The monastery hopes that this place will provide a peaceful and perfect completion of one's life, amidst the inspiring chanting of the Buddha Dharma. After a vegetarian banquet at the monastery we headed back home. There was a final bhuddist chanting ceremony of the day to bless the house. The diminutive female monk helping to conduct this ceremony had been chanting almost all day for all of the activities. Her voice was giving out, but even when she was offered water, she refused. That was pretty hardcore.
Given that we were not as hardcore as the bhuddist monk, we had meat at dinner time. The meal consisted of local Tainan small dish specialties, that are bought at tiny shops along the streets. The first one on the left is "Bi Guh" (pardon my english spelling of the taiwanese dish names). Its a really tasty dish of tiny pork fat bits on sticky rice. On the right is an excellent noddle soup called "Dah Mee". It has a really fragrant broth.
On the left was a really tasty "Tuh Tuh Hee" fish soup. It had a sweet viscous broth, that complemented the local fish perfectly. We headed off to sleep pretty soon after dinner. The next morning we left for a short plane flight to Japan (blog to follow). In the airport is the tacky Taiwanese tourist mascot. Mixy thinks that the spelling of Taiwan looks more like Tacone. The little girl is supposed to be an aborigine. Hope you enjoyed the story.
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What's up readers? Greetings from Yebisu Gardens in Tokyo. Grandpa Wu's funeral was a beautiful event and I will write about it when I come back. Tokyo has been amazing as well. Truly a magnificent and crazy city. Tomorrow we are taking the Shinkansen (Bullet train) to Kyoto. I read Anthony Kiedis' autobiography while in Taiwan (Jober's copy). It was really eye opening and a bizarre/scary read. I think we all were aware of the fact that Kiedis was a heavy drug addict at one time, but you have no idea how bad and recurrent his problem is, until you read this book. Hope everything is well with all of you back in America, and I will see you all soon.
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Greetings from Taiwan. Its really hot and humid right now. Not much to report, but here's what's happened so far. The flight over was probably the best transpacific flight I've been on, cause Toro scored us business class, and I took a sleeping pill. After flying to Taipei, and then to Kaoshung, we had a driver that drove us to Grandpa Wu's house in Tainan. We've pretty much just stayed inside most of the time because it's really hot and humid outside. Although we aren't doing much, I always love just being in Taiwan and soaking in the atmosphere, realizing that if my parents made slightly different choices, I could've spent my whole life here. Today, we drove through the country side to Grandma Wu's grave site. It's really special, and I might post some pics when I get back. The Shen family gravesite is pretty cool also. It's north of Taipei on a mountain filled with nothing but jam packed Bhuddist cemetary shrines. It's a pretty amazing sight. We haven't had anything to eat that is meat related so far, because of Grandpa Wu's mourning period before the funeral. Despite this, I managed to eat myself into a severe stomach ache this morning. I took pepto-bismol, but was still having waves of severe abdominal pains. I was laying upstairs all morning on the bed. Mixygirl thought I was exaggerating and told me to stop being antisocial, and to join everyone in the living room. Fortunately it was nothing a T#3 couldn't cure, and I felt a lot better after taking one of those.
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It was Mixygirl and I's 2nd wedding anniversary today. I was pretty tired cause I worked til 1am at Torrance then had to work again at 7:30 am at Olive View. In the afternnoon, got a cool haircut at Floyd's 99 by a barber named Tracy. Had a great dinner at Orris with Mixygirl. Had Alaskan king crab legs, tofu/asparagus/artichoke spring rolls, ahi tartare, crab cakes, filet mignon skewers, and halibut tempura. Anyway, the parents are away for China already. Mixy, Toro, and I leave for Taiwan/Japan tomorrow. And Jober, Shopping and Will are heading to the Galapogos the day after that. I'm sure we will have some interesting experiences to share afterwards.
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Well, yesterday started out as a pretty good day for me. Unfortunately I found out later in the day that Mixygirl, Toro, and Greedy's grandfather had just passed away. Obviously I offer them my condolences. Fortunately Grandpa Wu lived a pretty extraordinary life. With only an elementary school education, he started a company in Taiwan called Uni-President. It started out just making flour for noodles, but over the years has become a multinational food conglomerate on par with such companies as Nestle foods. Not only was he a very succesful businessman, he was very well known in Taiwan for his philanthropy and even held a televised award show every year honoring people who sacrifice in order to take care of their elderly parents.
Earlier in the day, after a meeting at Torrance Memorial I headed back to UCLA Center for Health Sciences to say hi to old friends on the way to the bookstore. This is a picture my residency hospital, and on the right is the difficult to find ER entrance.
After walking by the ambulance loading zone, I headed to the ER. Fortunately I got to say hi to a lot of familiar faces. Due to the shortage of nurses in our country, staff can turn over quite frequently, so it was good to see some left that were my friends. The pic on the right is of the trauma room, where I saw many people have their lives saved, or in other cases die despite maximum treatment.
Across the street, they are building a new hospital. The old one needs to be torn down due to structural instability from the Northridge earthquake. Unforunately as you can see, they named it after a Republican (at least its not Dubya). The new hospital is going to be state of the art. It was designed by I.M. Pei. Unfortunately when the plans were being drawn up for the new building it was economically wise to build a hospital with less beds to keep staffing costs low. Unfortunately the big problem in today's hospital world is not having enough beds. They will attempt to respond to this problem by building a bigger UCLA-Santa Monica hospital, and having some of the patients hospitalized there instead.
To end on a lighter note, on the left is a picture of Mixygirl and my Mom on our belated Mother's Day dinner. For dessert, Mixy made an incredible grand marnier souffle with chocolate caramel sauce. She did a great job despite being tipsy after drinking too much sake at dinner. On the right are Swiss Army shoulder bags. Toro alluded to the fact that I carry one of these suckers wherever I go. They are indeed the perfect man-purse. However the one I've been using for the past few years has been getting frayed. I've looked everywhere and could only find red and purple colored replacements (BARF!!!). Fortunatley at UCLA bookstore I stumbled upon the perfect next generation replacement.
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