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6/11/00,
16:49
I just found an article
written about me, at PalmPower
Magazine. Amazing, the things you find when you hunt around the web.
Actually, someone came to my web site through a URL from PalmPower. I
surfed over there, and was very surprised to find the article, which I
hadn't known about. Strange that they didn't contact me, ever...
6/11/00,
00:33
Stanford is amazing. Even though I'm
not really affiliated with it anymore, except for being an alumn, it continues
to offer me amazing opportunities. Tonight three friends and I played
Haydn's String Quartet Op.76 No.2 for Kofi
Annan, the current Secretary-General of the United Nations, and about
300 other people. In the audience were a bunch of Stanford alumni and
others who have achieved notoriety including Nobel Prize winners, and
Warren
Christopher, former Secretary of State. This was Gerhard Casper's
final year as the president of Stanford; he gave a strangely disjoint
speech thanking everybody he could think of. It was neat to play for commencement
dinner again -- I've played for three years in the past, and it was fitting
to have my last performance coincide with Casper's farewell. President
Casper mispronounced my friend Pamina's name (it sounded like "PAAmeenah",
instead of "pahMEEnah"). In the past he's gotten it right, and
has even alluded its origin (The Magic Flute). Strange... Anyway, it seemed
that Provost Hennessy
(the next president) enjoyed the music as well. His eyes were closed during
the performance -- hopefully he wasn't sleeping! :) A lot of people I
know are worried that he might not like classical music as much as Casper
did. We'll see, I guess.
5/14/00,
00:20
I am playing in a recital on Tuesday,
May 23rd. Check out the recital
flyer, and come if you're interested! [recordings
are up at my music page].
3/28/00,
00:56
I went to see Romeo
Must Die tonight, because... well, Jet Li's in it, and he kicks ass.
It had some good action in it (and some funny parts -- man, some of the
acting was bad!). Anyway, I was a bit disturbed that the film perpetuated
Asian stereotypes, but I guess that's the reason I went to see it in the
first place. At least modern film is portraying Asian men as tough guy
ass-kickers, and not nerdy or subservient bucked-tooth roles like film
used to. It could be a good start. But... of course, the hero didn't get
to kiss the girl in the end, as a Caucasian actor would undoubtedly have.
Maybe next time.
3/27/00,
19:09
From an article forwarded to me, which
struck a chord in me (and many people I know). I especially like the last
line.
"Jane, Michael, Robert and Kathryn grew up as part of a generation
with fewer social constraints determining their futures than has been
true for probably any other generation in history. They were taught
at school that when they grew up they could "do anything", "be anything".
It was an idea that was reinforced by popular culture, in films, books
and television. The notion that one can do anything is clearly liberating.
But life without constraints has also proved a recipe for endless searching,
endless questioning of aspirations. It has made this generation obsessed
with self-development and determined, for as long as possible, to minimise
personal commitments in order to maximise the options open to them.
One might see this as a sign of extended adolescence. Eventually,
they will be forced to realise that living is as much about closing
possibilities as it is about creating them." [full
text]
3/24/00,
01:03
I think I'm getting sick. I have a
cough -- this sucks! Anyway, tonight I read through Haydn, Mozart, Brahms,
Dvorak, and Smetana quartets with some fantastic musicians (Huang Bin,
Bernie Zaslov and Bill Palmer). It's amazing what playing with professional
musicians will do to one's own playing (inspiration -- they're SO good!!).
Bin is visiting from London for a few weeks. She's the winner of the Paganini
Competition, and said she's going on tour soon to Italy, Greece, Georgia,
and a few more places. Afterwards Bernie and his wife Naomi told stories
about their history with their musician friends, who all seem to be household
names. Crazy.
2/25/00,
02:32
I've been considering taking this area
of my site down again. I don't seem to need it as much these days... Anyway,
this week has been pretty eventful. Last night I had dinner with the St.
Lawrence String Quartet and Rob
Kapilow. I arranged for Rob (probably one of the most charismatic
people I've ever met) to do a presentation for E.piphan; he (and the quartet)
went through about 5 minutes of Bartok's 3rd String Quartet in great detail,
over the course of a 1-hour interactive lecture. I was disappointed that
only about 30 people managed to drag their asses out of their cubes to
attend, but the show itself was a big hit. In the evening I went to see
Cirque du Soleil's
"Dralion" at PacBell Park in San Francisco, which was also incredible.
I was overwhelmed by the beauty and sheer perfection of the human form,
and had tears well up in my eyes like when I experience good music. Strange
how I've become over the last couple of years... Anyway, I had seen Chinese
acrobatics before (amazing, as usual), but the music and sets created
a neat effect.
My friend was able to describe in a more effective way what I've
been trying to say about music in all of my ramblings below. I would like
to share it:
"I've always found that I'm moved much more easily by music than
by anything else. I can sit in a concert hall (or just sit in my room)
listening to something like Tchaik #5 and be so profoundly touched by
the opening chord progressions in the first movement. The feeling isn't
quite describable, just something at the center of my thoracic cavity
(sorry, I've been studying anatomy all day...) -- kind of like a light
turned on inside, but it's heavy and it makes me just close me eyes
and clench me fists; something that's so powerful it consumes me as
if it were trying to take control of me - - and it's something that
I take with me for the rest of the day. I can run that bit of music
through my head later on while I'm walking around or in class and still
be so moved by my impressions of it. It's never been like that with
movies or art. Sure, they make impressions on me, but nothing as permanent
or poignant."
1/3/00,
03:21
I went to hear MTT conduct the San
Francisco Symphony Orchestra tonight -- Mahler's 9th!! That symphony
is amazing. Mahler seems to be able to bring out something in me
that I can't seem to find anymore, except in dreams. It's like watching
a sad movie that brings tears to your eyes, except in movies one can often
shut down emotion because there's actual content you can rationalize causing
the emotion. Music is not like that; the last movement of Mahler's
9th just sort of opens the floodgates and pulls tears from my eyes.
I felt raw, unbridled emotion, without the clutter of "content"...
and without a handle I could use to block it out. I felt my pulse
quicken and my breath become shallow -- the anticipation of the end was
an extended, satisfying pain (that is, until it was cut short by some
idiot who started clapping during the perfect silence after the last breath
from the strings. I cringed visibly).
12/15/99,
01:47
You know what? I just realized that
I don't smile like I used to. That's a rather unpleasant realization.
I turned 24 today. Yay. I'm going to smile more, I think. I got to read
more sextets tonight with some friends, which was a lot of fun. Oh yeah
-- you can check out some mp3s of the Stanford
Chamber Strings playing in Memorial Church at Stanford University, if
you're interested. I had a great time playing. :)
12/01/99,
00:00
So, did you know that female wildebeasts
won't care for orphaned young wildebeasts? The orphans are left to die.
I learned that fact today.
I found my photos on two more "photo of the day" sites
today: Steve's
Digicams, and Digital
Photography World. They'll only be there if you happen to check today.
Otherwise, here are the local copies: [1]
[2]
I played in a chamber music recital today with my piano trio. It
made me feel old, because all of the musicians were currently Stanford
students, 'cept me. *sigh*
blah blah blah. I'm restless, with nothing to say.
11/13/99,
23:49
I had a music-filled day. I read through
Schubert's Cello Quintet with some friends and practiced cello for a long,
long time. I also scanned some photos of my recent Las
Vegas trip, and some of us playing
on the roof at work.
11/13/99, 00:13
Hey! Neat. My photo is the photo of the
day for the second time at Steve's
Digicams. Of course, if you don't click through today, you won't get
to see the photo unless you look
at my local copy.
11/10/99,
22:40
Tonight I went to see the Pacifica
String Quartet perform at Stanford University. They performed (with the
St. Lawrence String Quartet): Dvorák: Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 97;
Ligeti:
Quartet No. 1, Métamorphoses nocturnes; and Mendelssohn: Octet in
E-flat major for strings, Op. 20. The Ligeti Quartet was amazing, and
is possibly the neatest quartet I've ever heard. It's a piece that few
students will ever get to play because of its difficulty. The performance
was excellent, and inspiring! My piano trio played in a masterclass with
the Pacifica Quartet yesterday, which was lots of fun. They're young,
laid back, and had constructive things to say. I found it a bit distracting
that the 2nd violinist had a mid-west accent while the violist had a (slight)
Australian accent. I sort of expect quartets that play cohesively to behave
cohesively in other aspects as well, even though I know that that expectation
is not a valid one.
11/6/99,
00:51
Silicon Valley is cool. I went to
George John's housewarming
party today, and ended up trying to tie a balloon around his dog "Data"
and making neutrally bouyant helium balloons with Larry
Page. When asked what Google's culture was like, he said, "we
have lots of big exercise balls -- one's about six feet wide." The
Stanford computer science alumni community always amazes me -- I feel
very fortunate.
11/4/99,
22:59
My friend at work wrote a funny little
section in his self-evaluation (we have a formal self-evaluation process
now. argh!). He left some of it in the actual self-eval that he turned
in to management. Some context: we had to write about how we fulfilled
some of the company's "core values". Here's what he wrote:
- Listen Well
Act Quickly [sic]. Every time I get a piece of email, I check
it immediately. I am constantly listening for my phone to ring, and
when it does, I act quickly and immediately pick up the receiver.
- Intelligent.
I am very smart. I am constantly out-thinking not only the competition
but anyone with whom I come in contact. I often find myself out-thinking
myself. A strange loop indeed! I just took an IQ test online and scored
162. And I haven't slept well in weeks. I employ my dangerously high
intelligence to perform my tasks with dangerously high quality. I aim
to continue to employ my boundless intelligence in helping drive our
stock price up without bound.
- Accountable.
I am willing to reap the rewards of my commitments. When Project xxxxxx
completes, I expect to get an Amazon.com gift certificate.
- Open and Honest
Communication. In the spirit of insisting that bad news travel
faster than good news, I make it a point to squeal like a pig every
time our stock price is on a down swing.
I got a big kick out of it.
10/18/99,
03:14
I had a neat night (mostly). It even gets its own
interesting page with photos.
10/18/99,
00:23
I went on my first night dive in Monterey on Saturday
night. Ever since I sat on Torrey
Pines Beach one night and watched the crests of the waves shimmer
with an amazing soft blue-green light, I've wanted to dive at night to
play with the bioluminescent
dinoflagellates. Well, I guess technically I've wanted to disturb
them, since they have to be jostled in order to emit light. Anyway, it
was amazing. The water was thick with plankton, and visibility was about
10 feet. While kicking out to our drop point on the surface of the water,
a mere wave of the hand left a glowing green cloud infused with little
bright sparks. At one point in the dive, I was on the bottom alone at
a depth of about 40 feet waiting for my instructor and dive buddy to join
me (my dive buddy was having bouyancy problems). I shut off my light and
sat there in the darkness. At the bottom, there was no cloud of light
-- just a hundred tiny pinpricks of blue-green light flying by, like a
trail of sparks caught in a sudden gust of wind. I sat staring with a
sort of muted wonder that could only have come from waiting five years
to experience this. I waved my arm a few times in slow, wide arcs in front
of me. I know that I was there alone with my light off for only about
30 seconds, but it seemed like I sat there for a long time.
10/13/99,
02:47
I love listening to classical music when I'm tired.
Subtleties in the music can have an extreme effect -- the perfect placement
of a single note is often overwhelming and can result in every hair on
my body standing straight up... I remember going to hear the San Francisco
Symphony play Mahler's 6th after pulling an all-nighter for school work.
During the entire concert, I sat mesmorized by the music -- it affected
me in an unidentifiable (untraditional) manner, leaving me feeling emotionally
drained afterwards. Mahler's 6th never resolves; it builds up very slowly
until a point just before it should climax, only to have the musical development
struck down (almost literally) by a giant hammer-blow. This happens three
times, and after the third time, I was rather disturbed -- sort of...
unsettled and unsatisfied, really, but in a good way. In the car on the
way home from work today (about half an hour ago), I sat with my head
resting on the headrest, listening to Evgeny Kissen play the 2nd movement
of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in a recording of his "legendary"
Moscow concert. I've been working late every night, and am very tired.
Anyway, it was neat. The texture of the waves of music was almost tangible
-- I visualized myself as a reed in the ocean, being pulled and pushed
by the current as the tangible waves washed through me... I could try
to describe it more, but I'm tired, and probably can't do it justice anyway.
I just read what I wrote. It sounds cheesy. To make up for that, I'll
say something totally unrelated -- EPNY hit 70 1/8 today. THAT is crazy.
10/9/99,
03:25
Here's something amusing. I was scanning negatives
tonight, and reading the September issue of Scientific American,
when I discovered an article on "throat-singing." A quick Google
search lead to the Throat-Singing
Society, where they have some amazing recorded
.wav files, and a tutorial
on throat-singing! I just practiced for an hour, and can actually hear
the overtones in my singing. It's crazy. I never thought I'd be able to
throat-sing!
Oh, speaking of things people probably never think would happen,
I saw someone's resume in the trashcan in E.piphany's restroom yesterday.
I'll be that guy never thought that would happen.
10/8/99,
22:32
I'm at work, on a Friday evening -- how depressing.
Anyway, I finally put up my "Turning
Over the Millenium" entry (you can see
it here). It's a project a woman named Jo-Anne Sullivan is working
on (she emailed me out of the blue asking me if I'd like to participate).
Each photographer gets to put up a thumbnail and some photographs that
are representative of the place he or she lives in. I've decided to represent
Silicon Valley, and I think my first entry does a good job. Anyway, the
idea is that once enough photographers participate, one should be able
to go there to get a snapshot of the world through the eyes of individual
photographers in different locations. Neat, huh? I think it'll be very
cool once there's critical mass.
10/7/99,
02:07
I promised my friends I'd put this picture up,
so here it is.
It was taken on the evening of September 24th, 1999, at a cabin in Lake
Tahoe (I talked about this trip below). I find it rather amusing that
this picture exists -- it's perhaps the funniest photo of me to date.
:)
10/6/99,
00:43
I just returned from the opening of the San
Francisco Performances at Davies Symphony Hall. Tickets were courtesy
of my friend Sarah
Pont, who has the fancy title of "Audience Development Coordinator"
listed in the SF Performances program. André Watts (piano), Thomas Hampson
(baritone), and Leila Josefowicz (violin) were the featured performers.
I must say that this concert featured the least inspiring performances
I've seen at Davies. I've seen André Watts play twice, and both times
I have actually been upset afterwards. It seems like he's just barging
through the pieces without giving them much thought -- like it's just
a job or something. Argh -- it was also frustrating to hear the many wrong
notes in Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23., especially when the
audience collectively oohs and ahhs immediately after the last note, just
preceeding thunderous applause. *sigh*. At intermission, we bumped into
a bunch of Stanford-affiliated musicians. It was like a little reunion
in the hallway, and reminded me that music is very much alive in my friends.
It's just me who is not practicing. :)
Oh -- here's the answer to the Caller-ID anomaly in the message
below: it turns out that a friend of mine is house-sitting at Paul Brest's
place. That's why I got a call from his house. Also, our
stock is doing well. It closed at 48 1/2 today, and has been as high
as 59 1/2 (!). Crazy!
I spent this last (extended) weekend in Boston, recruiting for
E.piphany at the M.I.T. job fair. It was refreshing to again be at a school
where resumes look like the ones I'm used to seeing, and where students
exude smartness. Recruiting at Berkeley last year was difficult. That
place is just so...big; it was hard to find the people we were looking
for. The weather was perfect, and for some reason I know a lot of people
in Boston, so I spent the weekend socializing. I went apple picking for
the first time since I was a baby, and at the Dole orchard (in western
Massachussets) we chatted with a guy on a golf cart named Carl who was
hired to patrol the fields by the same guy who "convinced [him] to
join the war (WWII)."
Two weekends ago a bunch of us went up to Tahoe to celebrate a
friend's 24th birthday. I placed my first $100 bet, and lost $200 in 5
minutes. *sigh*
We also went "sport fishing", which really just means
that we sat around on a boat while the captain tracked schools of fish
with sonar, and dropped baited lines into them. So... we caught
5 lake trout, went back to our cabin, and cooked them for dinner. I had
a fabulous time -- the weather was perfect.
9/22/99,
00:04
I guess I'm starting to get excited for the IPO!
There's a lot of hype surrounding E.piphany, which I guess is good. I'm
getting multiple emails from friends for every news article that comes
out with our company name in it. There's an enormous lightning storm raging
outside right now. My house is shaking with every bolt (I can feel the
vibrations through the concrete foundation), and my monitor flickers a
bit -- I think I may turn off the computer soon. Wow... These bolts must
be really close. There's almost no delay between the flash of light and
the noise. You know, caller-id is really strange. If I didn't have it,
perhaps I'd have less to think about in life...? Caller-ID told me I got
a call from a friend today, but he denied ever calling when I called him
back. Strange. Caller-ID also told me that I got a call from Paul Brest
today (he just stepped down as dean of the Stanford Law School), but he
didn't leave a message. I have no idea why he might have called. I've
played music with him before (he's a violist), so perhaps the call was
music related...? Ah, whatever. I suppose if I hadn't known, I wouldn't
be wondering. Maybe I should cancel the service...
9/21/99,
00:11
IPO in one day! Crazy. I was commissioned by a
friend here at work to make an image portraying uh... what he's been experiencing
or feeling (or something) lately. Here
it is. It's very exciting. Oh, you can also see some of the people
I work with if you look at the photo.
9/13/99,
00:15
Oh my god. I just watched a cuckoo bird chick shove
three unhatched eggs out of its stolen nest (cuckoo bird mamas stick their
eggs in the nests of other birds when they are off feeding), performing
an action Charles Darwin called "horrible perfection." It was
pretty sad to watch. :(
9/11/99,
02:17
Wow, I'm tired now. After finishing packing and
labeling everything that needed to be taken to the new office (excluding
the fish tank, which will be moved this Sunday), a large group of us went
to get burritos at La Costeña and then headed over to the park by S.G.I.
near Shoreline to eat. The last time we went there was about a year ago,
back when E.piphany was still small. The tone at the last pseudo picnic
was much different -- at the time, we were all upset that the number of
engineering slots open for new hires (college kids) had been dropped to
about five and ended up having a big bitch-fest for over an hour about
it. Of course, those numbers were totally inaccurate, as we proceeded
to hire 120 more people in the next 11 months.
Anyway, since we were forced to leave the office at 1pm and can't
return until the new office opens on Monday morning, we decided to take
the day to romp around and relax. We went over to Greg Walsh's (one of
E.piphany's founders) place to swim. Allon and I lept off the roof into
the pool, which added some spice to the gathering. I'll actually have
an mpeg of it at some point in the future. Perhaps it will go up somewhere
around here... :) We had dinner at Frankie Johnnie & Luigi's, where
we managed to convince management that the coupon we had that stated that
it was good only for parties of six or fewer people should, in fact, be
honored for our party of seven, and then headed out to Pescadero beach
to explore at night. After walking along the bottom of the cliffs for
awhile, we decided to build a fire with driftwood. I tried a few times
to light the little wet twigs strewn about everywhere with some cigar
matches, but that wasn't as effective as it could have been. I did, however,
manage to blacken the tips of two of them. Anyway, we all emptied out
our pockets to look for paper or any other kind of kindling, and ended
up starting the fire up with receipts from Fry's and Bed Bath & Beyond,
and business cards from Bluedog,
Intel, and E.piphany. We thought we
were being especially uh... crazy (or something) because we used both
the main founder's business card and our CEO's business card as well.
I guess we're lucky none of us are superstitious. We joked about how one
day there would be stories told about a few daring silicon valley kids
who went to the beach and started a fire with receipts, business cards,
and twenty-dollar bills. The twenty-dollar bills thing didn't actually
happen, but we thought it would make a better story. Oh, and nothing exciting
happened, either. I guess the story only works if we all go found successful
companies or something. They can make a television movie called, "Pyros
of Silicon Valley" and show it on TNT. :)
Oh, I also wanted to add that I think Hambrecht
& Quist's process for friends and family shares is really, really
bad. We were all supposed to fax in these annoying, ambiguous forms (after
being FedEx'ed them) on the same day, and then mail in the same forms.
Of course, what ended up happening was a logistical nightmare. Everyone
in the office ended up huddled around a single fax machine, faxing multiple
pages to a single number over the course of two days. It didn't help that
the fax number listed on the first page of the form differed from the
number listed on the second page, and that there was no way for us to
get either written or verbal confirmation that our forms were received.
*sigh* On a lighter note, I'm excited for the weekend. Our email is down,
so I'll be relaxing without thinking about work all weekend!
9/10/99,
12:10
E.piphany is moving today. The office is a mess,
and we're being kicked out of here at 1pm. Crazy! Anyway, I took a photo
I wanted to share last Tuesday. It's a reflection of a friend and
me (just the camera) in another friend's eye. It's unedited, except for
cropping. I also took a few more infrared
portraits on the same day (of the same people). My head is cloudy
right now, so I'll sign off.
8/31/99,
16:00
A friend at work found this great quote that reflects
the growing pains of being an early employee at a fast-growing company:
"In the development organization, pioneers are
the ones who push the edge of the technology application envelope. They
do not institutionalize. They do not like to create infrastructure.
They don't even like to document ... Their brilliance fuels the early
market ... Nonetheless, once you have crossed the chasm, these people
can become a potential liability. Their fundamental interest is to innovate,
not administrate. ... they are not likely to cooperate in the compromises
needed, and can be highly disruptive to groups that are seeking to carry
this agenda out ... It is critical, therefore, ... that pioneer technologists
be transferred elsewhere ... if necessary, to another company.
[The pioneer technologists] divide into two camps
-- true company founders and very early employees ... The latter pose
a real problem. They can point with accuracy to the notion that they
created a large part of the core product. Thus, should that product
become a mainstream market hit, they feel they should get a major share
of the gains. The fact is, they don't, and the truth is, bluntly, they
don't deserve it either... they are compelled to conduct their craft
regardless to whether anyone will pay for it. As such, their negotiating
position is fundamentally weak, and their normal compensation reflects
it."
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore
8/17/99,
15:32
Alright, now I'm impressed by the volatility of
the web. I replaced the main infrared page on my site with an image (no
text content), and watched my altavista "ranking" go from 1st
to who-knows-where (not even listed). A few days later, I'm back up to
6th. In fact, someone's page who was inspired by mine ranks before me!
I'm not so worried about search engine rankings; I just think it's neat.
I was also thinking wondering today if there are behavioral patterns
that can be correlated with whether one washes his/her hands after going
to the restroom. I myself am a hand-washer, and it seems to me that there's
probably a certain type of person who doesn't wash their hands after finishing
their business. I wonder if anyone has done research on the topic...
Wow. That was the biggest load of crap (heh) that has ever come
out of me onto this page!
8/12/99,
21:56
Tonight is the night I've been waiting for for
about a long, long time. I'm going out somewhere far, far away to try
to catch a glimpse of the Perseid
Meteor Showers. I think I may try to go up Mt. Hamilton, near the
observatory up there. Oh! I remembered why I wanted to write. I recently
was published in PEI Magazine's August issue for an article I wrote about
digital infrared photography. Ever since then, the number of hits on my
page has increased, and I saw (for the first time) an infrared photo taken
with the same camera on some digital photography web page (one of those
pic-o'-the-day things). Crazy... I'm always astounded by the efficiency
of the web at distributing information. I just did a search for "digital
infrared photo" on Altavista and my page came up first.
8/4/99,
23:49
I can't type. I just got one of those fancy ergonomic
keyboards, and it's driving me NUTS. I guess I should force myself to
use it for awhile to see if my hands stop tingling. I get really scared
when they tingle and start to feel fatigued. This weekend, our cubes at
work are being compressed to make room for the new folk. We've grown from
about 35 people (when I joined last year) to over 150, and it's getting
crazy in here. I believe the office has a maximum occupancy of 99. E*Trade
must have felt the squeeze, too, because they just moved out last month.
Since the fish tank can't move, it'll be in my cube, which will
leave a full 3 feet between it and my desk-space. This does not make me
happy. As much as I love my fish, 3 feet is just not enough. Oh yeah,
we filed for
IPO on July 14th, which makes all of us very excited for the coming
months!
7/31/99,
03:01
I just returned from seeing David Mamet's Glengarry
Glen Ross (the play) at the Exit
Theatre in San Francisco. It was produced by Teatro Shalom,
and was really neat to see. People in San Francisco are really
very different from people down here in the peninsula. It's always
sort of an eye-opening experience to go hang out in the city. It's hard
to describe why; perhaps at a later date I'll try to explain. Anyway,
here's a description of the play from sidewalk.com [full text]:
The sleazy underside of American capitalism is on full display
in David Mamet's searing drama, Glengarry Glen Ross. The play follows
the lives of five characters over 48 hours, all rapacious real estate
salesmen desperate to save their jobs, desperate for sales "leads."
The play is fast-paced, brutal and filled with expletive-laden
language, all typical of Mamet. The playwright's delicious wordplay,
elliptical silences and other linguistic tricks are also on display,
bound tightly with the volatile personalities of the characters.
Afterwards we roamed around the area near 21st and Valencia, looking
for a bar or restaurant to whet our appetites and thirst. After
sort of being indecisive for awhile, we ended up at a little tapas joint,
where we drank a lot of sangria (from glasses -- not from the little spout)
and ate some good food. Going out to the city always gives me a
little kick in the butt -- I should really get out more. Tonight
I also heard a good recording of the Boston Symphony Orchestra playing
the second movement of Brahms' Symphony No. 4, and was temporarily elevated
to a state of rapture (or, it could have been the alcohol making my head
spin). Here's
a link to the album so you can buy it from Amazon, if you wish.
I also heard a fantastic
recording of Kim Kashkashian playing Shostakovich's Sonata for Viola
and Piano, Opus 147. Cool stuff. I must go to bed now, as
I have to get up in 6 short hours to go to Great America.
7/1/99,
03:15
I think I saw Guy Kawasaki today while eating lunch
at Gombei.
Hmmm... I think I had more to say more about that, but I can't remember
what I wanted to say. Oh well. I'd been craving Japanese food while being
away in Italy; Gombei was the perfect solution.
7/1/99,
08:55
The violist of my string quartet last year found
this neat description of the members of a string quartet in Giuseppe Carpani's
Biography of Haydn (1812):
first violin: "a man of spirit and good graces who discusses
with oratorical skill a theme of his own device"
second violin: "his friend, who above all aims to clarify
and develop the ideas of his friend"
cello: "a staid and learned man who answers the first violin
in laconic but well-defined sentences, and who generally sees to order
and decorum in the discussion"
viola: "a somewhat gossipy matron, who has little to say,
but who nevertheless is always jumping into the discussion, and at times
by chance spins out the thread of the conversation further"
I just returned from a two week tour of Italy with the Stanford Symphony
Orchestra. We were fortunate enought to be given a private tour of the
Vatican museum after closing hours, where we were allowed to lie on the
floor of the Sistine Chapel to enjoy the frescos without hordes of tourists
mingling around. In Florence, we were given the opportunity to walk through
the corridor (built by the Medici family to connect their new palace with
the old one) over the shops on the Ponte Vecchio that connects the Ufizzi
Gallery with the Boboli Gardens. In Tuscany, I saw some of the most beautiful
landscapes I've ever seen. Italy is an amazing country. Every time I go
there I'm so enchanted with what I see that I feel like I'm missing something
when I return to my "normal" life. Of course, the Italian airline
we flew back seems to have misplaced my luggage, so not everything
is perfect. :)
6/10/99,
12:41
I was at a friend's place last night, lamenting
the fact that after this year's Stanford graduation, almost all of the
remaining friends I have from college will have left the Bay Area. It's
a bit depressing. I told her that I probably would have to change my habits
and/or activities in order to put myself in situations where I may meet
more people. I guess the change would have the potential to make my life
more interesting, but I still look forward with dread. She said, "it'll
be like freshman year again." I pointed out that during freshman
year, we were forced to be surrounded by lots of people through dorms
and such. This situation doesn't afford me that benefit. She replied,
"oh... well, then it'll be like freshman year at a lame school."
I guess I have that to look forward to... :)
I also just re-read a really
annoying article in Wired news about my home town (where my parents
still live -- we moved there when I was 10). The article quotes James
Feldman, whom I guess some of my friends used to know. Here's a snippet:
Rancho Santa Fe is the wealthiest community in San Diego County
and one of the richest in the country. It's a place where carpenters
drive '97 Chevy Cheyennes, and everyone else drives BMWs, Mercedes Benzes,
and Lexuses. That's when they aren't busy riding their horses or cruising
around in limos, as was one passel of immaculately made-up teenage girls
demanding Grey Poupon amid howls of giggles Thursday evening. "There's
really only one class of people here," said Feldman,
"and the people in that house weren't part of it. I mean, no
one ever played tennis or golf with them. That's what people in the
community do together. That's what we are." "It all
revolves around the country club," concurred Nancy Sullivan,
who moved to Rancho Santa Fe to "get away from the craziness of
LA" three years ago. "And the people
in that house certainly didn't belong to the country club."
I've highlighted my favorite lines for you to read. I wonder if
he and Nancy Sullivan realize how ridiculous they sound in the article
-- I'd like to think that all of the quotes were probably invented by
the author, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were actually uttered.
I guess the entire article sort of gives the community a nasty spin. My
life certainly didn't revolve around the country club when I lived there.
6/9/99,
02:15
I just took a break from work to mess around in
Photoshop. A friend of mine made a cloak and light saber so he could go
see Star Wars dressed like Darth Maul, and I just happened to have a picture
of me in the cloak. With a little magic, here's the end result.
Here's a lighter version for those
of you who are gamma-impaired. If you want more, here a really
dorky photo of me with the ol' light saber. Yep. Back to work.
6/4/99,
15:04
Here's my bonehead move of the month: I wrote a
check to pay for the parking ticket I got up on
the east peak of Mt. Tam and sent it in to Marin County. Of course, it
would have helped if I had signed the check, which I guess I had
forgotten to do. Argh! The stupid mistake cost me $23 in late fees. Yesterday,
I had a great time playing in a private lecture on string quartet repertoire
in a nice living room in Palo Alto. We played movements from Mozart's
G Major String Quartet, Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 18 No. 4, and Dvorak's
"American" String Quartet. The audience was perfect; they listened
with the sort of excited attentiveness that makes a group play much better
than they normally do.
I'm also excited because I'm just finished an article on digital
infrared photography for PEI Magazine,
which should be published sometime in the next couple of months.
5/25/99,
14:55
Today is my sister's 22nd birthday. We're
getting so old! It seems not so long ago that we were sitting around
a crayola kiddie table on little miniature chairs pretending to speak
English. :) I played The Game over the weekend,
which was very, very tiring (48 hours awake!), but a lot of fun.
You can see my group's online journal, if you want to.
5/18/99,
12:32
Going to see Star
Wars Episode I tonight at 12:01am! I'm very excited.
5/13/99,
01:32
What a great day! I tore myself out of bed
bright and early for a 9am masterclass with the Ying Quartet
(the Eastman School of Music's
resident string quartet). We managed to get through the Schubert
(1st movement, Cello Quintet), despite our two week hiatus on rehearsing,
and had an absolutely fabulous time working with them. They were
warm, friendly, and had lots of very constructive things to say about
our playing. Unlike many other groups we've played for, all of them
learned our names on the the first try and used them consistently throughout
the coaching. After working a full day, I went to their 8pm recital
at Stanford, which was very inspiring. They are just so...
sincere about their music-making, and look like they're having a blast
up on stage. They played Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence
String Sextet with Leslie and Marina (violist and cellist of the St. Lawrence
String Quartet, with whom we read the
same sextet just a couple of months ago), Schumann's String Quartet
in A major, and an amazing quartet by Christopher Rouse. Afterwards,
we sang happy birthday to Tim Ying (first violinist) backstage, and then
went to a friend's house to chat and hang out with Phillip Ying (violist).
Talking to Phillip was enlightening -- he's a very healthy person, and
seems to have things (life, music, etc.) generally figured out.
I think he taught us a lot about what it means to play music professionally.
Anyway, so I'm back home now, regretting having shot myself in the foot
while younger by never practicing cello.
5/10/99,
11:21
My watch band just broke. I was walking
to my garage, and my watch popped off my hand and smashed into the ground.
The metal tube that connects the band to the watch body (sort of looks
like a toilet paper roll holder) seems to have lost one of its springs,
which sort of sucks. Anyway, tonight I met one of my neighbors.
She came over at 10pm to tell me that I was keeping her up (I was demoing
my new projector to some friends -- complete with earth-shaking bass from
the movie soundtrack :). I guess normal people sleep by 10pm...?
Initially, I felt a twinge of guilt, but then she continued, telling me
that "at 10, 11, or midnight" I kept her up frequently with
movies or music. This pissed me off, because I have been TV-less
for a month now (this means that I couldn't have been watching movies
at my place), and I never listen to music late at night, because
when I get home, I usually go to sleep. Perhaps I'll leave my cd
player on "at 10, 11, or midnight" often, just to piss her off.
OK, maybe not. I'm writing this here because there's nothing else
I can do about her, and this way, I get to share my pissiness with the
world in a passive-aggressive sort of way. On a lighter note, I
only went into work for a few hours last weekend because I spent most
of the weekend scuba diving (attempting to dive, really) in Monterey.
The water was 46 degrees, and 30 mph winds had created some huge
waves that reduced the visibility to around 2-3 feet on Saturday, and
10 feet on Sunday. We were kneeling on the ocean floor, and couldn't
see anything -- even what we were kneeling on!
4/26/99,
02:55
This page doesn't have a black background, and
as such, I have no pictures to put here, since they've all been designed
to look good on black backgrounds. I had a neat day today.
My string quartet played (in the freezing-cold mist of the east peak of
Mt. Tam) for somebody's wedding proposal, and while I was up there, I
noticed that people were hiking, picnicking, and generally having fun.
Lately, I've been so absorbed with deadlines at work, it sort of surprised
me that people do go out and have fun. Anyway, I had an
extended chat with a friend today while driving to and from the event,
which is why this page is going back up. I used to have a "web
journal," but it proved to be too easy to dump everything nasty within
me out onto the page, so I took it down. Several months later,
my hard disk crashed, so it's gone forever, unless someone manages to
dig it up out of the server backups, which is not likely. She doesn't
understand why people have web pages, or why they feel compelled to share
their personal matters with the public. I don't know why others
do it, but I do it because I sometimes feel the need to create something
in a public space (outside of playing music in public), and publishing
on the web seems painless, and easy. I also enjoy wondering who
comes here, and what (if anything) they get out of coming here.
At least, I think that's why I do it. And now, I'm going
to go home, because normal people aren't at work at 3am, usually.
Congratulations! You've reached the beginning of time. You are officially
one step away from being a stalker, or maybe a closet voyeur at best. :)
If you've read all the way to here, you might as well sign
my guestbook, too. |
