I don’t know if only my system HDD is dead or if that and the internal storage are both dead. The system HDD is a 80GB Hitachi while the storage is a 400GB Samsung. They could both be dead. It’s a pain the in butt but at least the data is all intact and it won’t be too expensive to fix this.

Back up everything please!

I remember the first rehearsal I had with Ji Young back at NEC in Boston — Tarrago’s arrangement of “Campanas de Belen”. When she sang the first note, the first syllable, my jaw dropped. Her sound was so pure, so controlled, so heart-warming to listen to and to accompany.

Tonight’s program also featured “Pur ti miro” from Monteverdi’s Poppea. The first rehearsal of that also made my jaw drop — they blended so well, the dissonances were so heart-wrenching and the consonances so relaxed; so much color resonated throughout.

I have to thank South Bay Guitar Society and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation for funding this project and making it all possible. I have wanted to ask Lei to write a piece for me for a long time, and the opportunity finally presented itself when this grant became available.

Also on tomorrow night’s program is a piece by my good friend Nomi Epstein, who I have known since 2002. She wrote “Ouvert” for me in 2002 and I have performed it on a number of occasions in a couple of places. It’s great to have something like this grow with you as time goes by.

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.

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 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.

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

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 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