Steve Lin - Classical Guitarist

I just watched “Super Size Me”. One man’s 30-day McDonald binge, 3 meals a day. I’m disgusted, and I feel sick.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/63283/super-size-me

People who know me know that I have a pretty high tolerance for nasty stuff, unless it’s cockroaches. Yet, like a roach, a McNugget could probably survive a meteor strike, an ice age, and one day mutate to something that had wings. I had an In-n-Out burger a few years ago, a Wendy’s a few years ago, was dragged through a drive-thru in Texas a few weeks ago, but really, I can’t remember when I last touched this stuff. I think this must be the holy trinity — fatty sandwich, greasy fries, ultrasweet soda.

I always know that bad things will come if I go near these joints–by body tells me so. I guess I’m just grateful that I grew up in Taiwan, where vegetables and fruits were both abundant and delicious. Yes, the fatty pork and sausages, the wok-fried items, nasty street food, were part of the equation too, but nothing comes close to the Mc-High Fructose Corn Syrup, Mc-Mystery Meats, McPreservatives, and the McCardiac Arrests.

At least I was eating something decent while watching: I guess a kinda pho-risotto with brown rice, kimchee, chicken, and chicken + beef broth. All homemade from scratch, including the kimchee. And the broth too.

Thanks to Laura Cipriano for setting up a little library presentation at Taipei American School during my most recent Taipei visit!

I had a chance to share my experiences and to talk about being a guitarist in the US with my young counterparts. TAS has changed so much since I graduated in 1999. Everything is different. Just about everything. The same are: the students, mostly Taiwanese, are very quiet, though they’re that combination of Western + Asian. I still get the sense that everyone is hard-working as ever.

In any case, Laura also had some string players read through Vivaldi’s Guitar Concerto in D with me and here are some pictures.

I think I’m over my jet lag now — 2 weeks was too short a time to be in Asia, so I hope to go back soon. Taipei was fantastic, as always. Food, congestion, family, friends, and new experiences. I thought the concert with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra went well; conductor Lee Ying was lots of fun to work with, and all the staff at TCO were super friendly. More importantly, I made some new friends and found a bunch of Chinese music and CDs to listen to. It’s time to listen to the music from my past.

I only had 3 days to spend in Manila, but they were three fantastic days. My concert was hosted by “Guitar and Friends”. Incidentally, Eliot Fisk has a group of the same name in Salzburg. Guitarists are friendly; what can we say! The concert took place in a beautiful room in Intramuros. There were paintings of the past priests of the church, and the room reminded me of playing for Oscar Ghiglia’s master classes at L’Accademia Chigiana. Again, I made many friends. This was my first time in Manila, but I certainly hope it’s not the last. The flight was only 2 hours from Taipei; of course, with flight delays and immigration, the whole thing comes out to be a bit longer.

Oh, and I ate balut. Fermented duck eggs — with a partially formed duck inside. My verdict — tastes like egg; I’ve eaten stranger things; don’t eat the hair/feathers. I’ve done it once — good enough. There are tons of other delicious things to eat in Manila. Say coconut and mangos.

Yay! We got a nice writeup on Taiwan news for our 2/14 Taipei Chinese Orchestra concert!

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=863164&lang=eng_news

The thing every musician fears — the airport terminal gate keepers say to you that you need to check your instrument. Every time I have to fight. Every now and then I lose. JetBlue was one of those times. And the guy was seriously rude. And there was still room in the overhead. JetBlue used to be cool. Sorry, but one sour face is all I need, because at this point, many airlines offer much lower fares than JetBlue.
Now on to China Airlines. Most of these big 747s have little closets for coats and whatnot. Every single time I’ve been able to stow my guitar in said place (like on Eva Airways). The manager on duty wouldn’t budge. On top of that, he was the most stubborn, most rude, most disrespectful agent I have ever encountered. After most people had boarded, another more compassionate lady came to offer another solution — to see if there was actually space in the little closet, and to see if the flight crew would be willing to accept it.

The head attendant was by all accounts very understanding. Thanks so much to both her and that other lady.

As for that guy Henry. Man. I wouldn’t be blogging about this if it were just myself, but scores of other passengers, some going to Cambodia, others to Vietnam, still others to Thailand — tons of carry-on items were gate checked because they didn’t fit the 7 kilo weight limit or the tiny carry-on size restrictions. Fine. We’ll follow rules. But every one of the staff — every single one of those three — was rude. Just rude, and pissing off travelers. They offered no communication, no explanation, not a single complete sentence, no confirmation, no answers, nothing. Just the worst kind of attitude. Simple as that.

It’s the kind of attitude you’re willing to overlook at your local gritty neighborhood pizza joint or bar or hang because the food is so damn good. But that kind of attitude isn’t going to *ahem* fly for an airline.
I know that customer service and satisfaction are important to businesses in Taiwan because the flight attendants on the plane delivered the quintessential Asian hospitality and warm smile. It’s hard to understand why those people on the ground had to be such major douches.

I was tuned in to KQED, as always, and I heard another reason to love public radio.

I was listening to an interview with George Packer and was intrigued, as always. Of all the incredible points made, the comment about the Iraqi woman whose dream was to ride a bicycle reminded me of one of my experiences.

As a performing guitarist, I get to fly around a bit; naturally, I often end up having fascinating chats with strangers. On one flight I sat beside a beautiful girl from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. When I told her I was a professional musician, she told me how she wanted to learn to play the piano.

Not thinking, I asked why she didn’t just go ahead and get a piano teacher. She then explained how music, as we know it, is not allowed in her culture. She continued, expressing discontent with those “stupid people”, referring to the religious fanatics, who continue to shape a society where women are not allowed to drive, or in very conservative areas, where it is a crime for a woman to be in public with a man who is not her husband or family member.

To be sure, this girl was not a crazy, rebellious liberal; quite the contrary, she was in her mid-20s, was a very devout Muslim, did not drink alcohol, and simply appeared by all means to be a sensible human being. Her story paints a complex picture, far more nuanced, intricate, and complicated than the narratives that have dominated the major news networks. For myself personally, it was one more of those events in life that remind you to be grateful for all those things I take for granted.

Packer’s play, “Betrayed” is playing in Berkeley. I’d drive an hour to see that.

http://www.cultureproject.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=64

I love Barefoot Coffee — no secret there. Today, inauguration day, espresso and black coffee are free (as long as it stays black). Awesome. Beautiful day. No more Bush! Thinking about going to an Obama party tonight.

My DMA project is about outreach. I had not envisioned so many bumps along the road… say for example, some members of the NEC staff not e-mailing me back. Well, thank goodness Angela Beeching is always there to help me out, from the best constructive and critical criticism of my bio and resume to recommending good reading material.

She turned me on to Eric Booth and I’m impressed. Everyone should check it out — watch it, streaming the audio, or download the mp3 on WGBH (Boston’s classical station).

http://forum.wgbh.org/wgbh/forum.php?lecture_id=3588

I just watched this documentary on hulu.com. I highly recommend it.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/49577/the-times-of-harvey-milk

I first learned about Harvey Milk a few months ago on NPR. Just like NPR — always being sensible, discussing the issues surrounding Prop. 8 and also giving us Bay Area people some history. Then that movie came out. Then today I was bored and stumbled upon this documentary.

It’s a beautiful story, full of hope and change. It reminds us how we always need great leaders to look up to and powerful role models to learn from. Sound familiar?

Milk is a piece of San Franciscan history that I hope will always live on. Prop. 8 is just for now. If Milk and his supporters were able to overturn something on the scale of Prop. 6 (watch the documentary), we should be able to make that next best decision to allow for the natural progression of rights and liberties to all people.

Thank you, Harvey Milk, for making our world a better place.

I don’t have a TV (or a microwave). At some point I’ll buy a TV probably, but I can live happily ever after without the microwave.

Anyways, I love Frontline, and I’m glad I can watch it on my computer. I just watched both parts of “Bush’s War”. Everyone should watch more Frontline:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/view/

I love learning about the complexity of issues; at the same time… AGHAHGAHGG!!!!!!!!