Destructive Isolation

No, this isn't going to be about mental health or my views on how people need to man up and stop trying to blame everything but themselves in an effort to pretend to be a responsible person. Instead, this is going to be yet another diatribe against Seattle drivers.

Every time I drive anywhere, I always notice drivers with headphones in their ears. I've never understood this, especially in today's days where most cars have an auxiliary input or even bluetooth audio streaming. (I mean, if you can afford a car, you can afford a cable for your car.) Having headphones makes you audibly isolated from your surroundings, which puts you and other drivers around you in dangerous situations as you lose a sense by which you can react to a situation. Granted I haven't seen this result in disaster yet, but I've seen drivers not even notice when honked at when they weren't paying attention to the light change to green,  and another driver who didn't even notice there was a fire truck with sirens blaring right behind him. This isn't something I noticed until I got to Seattle, but of course this isn't a surprise because Seattle drivers treat traffic rules and common sense just like they treat anything else: by being a hipster and thinking they're better than it all.

This also gets towards a general theme of avoiding driver responsibility (so kind of back to the first point I said I wasn't going to go on about). With all the technological tools available to drivers today, drivers seem to have come to rely on them instead of actually being responsible drivers. We've probably all heard of someone who was on a motorcycle that was hit (or almost got hit) by a car changing lanes because the bind spot indicator didn't say that the blind spot was occupied. Naturally these things can be avoided if drivers would actually use their mirrors and check their blind spots. The same goes for the front-collision avoidance system, as drivers should be paying attention on the road and should thus be able to avoid this kind of idiocy. Too many of these commercials shows these drivers being distracted and being "saved" by these systems. Hint: if you need to rely on technology to prevent you from being a completely worthlessly terrible driver, you shouldn't be driving. The car I drive has none of these features (nor does it have a back-up cam or anything of that sort either) and I get along just fine.

Reading Away The Night

So for a Secret Santa I'm participating in, I received two sets of books: The Alexander Trilogy and The Children's War, both historical fiction works that I thoroughly enjoyed. I had previously described a book which was probably the first book I read for leisure in about six years to occupy my time during some flights. However, I read these books and an age-old problem kind of reared it ugly head at me.

When I enjoy a book, I easily lose track of time, completely absorbed in the book. Since I tend to read towards the late evenings, I keep reading and reading, and next thing I know, it's already 3AM. It kind of makes it hard to then get enough sleep for work the next day, and then I'll go through long periods without reading a book for leisure. If only I had more self-control over books...

Paseo and Un Bien

For those of you who are familiar with Seattle's food scene, Paseo closed down and reopened under new ownership, and Un Bien opened under the direction of the son of the former owner of Paseo (or something to that effect). Both have essentially identical menus (at least for the important stuff) and pricing, so naturally I had to go visit both so see if either of them were able to conjure the magic of the old Paseo.

Paseo seemed to try to replicate everything as is to ensure the continuity of the brand-the sandwiches are more or less the same size (maybe a little smaller-still around a food) and the amount of onions is still gratuitous, creating the hot mess that we all have come to know. I tend to order only the scallop or the fish of the day sandwich, and so far I've noticed few changes, if any. However, I've been told by others that the signature Caribbean roast sandwich is drier than it was previously.

Scallop Sandwich at Paseo (Click to Enlarge)

Un Bien, on the other hand, seemed to try to start anew. The sandwiches are much smaller (maybe around 8 inches), and the onions are not overflowing. Overall the sandwich is much cleaner to eat and appears to try to appear as higher-class food, despite the shop essentially being a shack on the side of the road. I was a little disappointed in the portion size and the lack of onions, though I suppose they're only trying to maintain the flavors of Paseo without the huge greasy mess. There weren't that many scallops in the sandwich, but they were cooked just as well here as they were at Paseo. I've been told that the same signature Caribbean roast sandwich has much better meat at Un Bien.

Scallop Sandwich at Un Bien (Click to Enlarge)

I'd still personally recommend Paseo if you're still looking for the old Paseo, but Un Bien does bring another option to the table if Paseo is too messy.

Russian Robotic Predictability

Last month I attended a Seattle Symphony performance highlighted by Alexander Melnikov, a Russian pianist. His playing was very animated and played with a musicality that was not very common amongst my previous experiences listening to Russian musicians. He even gave the audience a little finger waggle when they began to applaud between movements.

My first recollection of a Russian-origin performer was when I was growing up and had the opportunity to see the Russian National Orchestra in performance. The orchestra was the perfect definition of technical soundness, almost as if the orchestra was a well-oiled museum. What was particularly striking was that all the violinists played in the exact same style-they were virtually indistinguishable other than their personal appearances. Their postures were the exact same, and each would use their bows in an identical manner. We would joke at the time that most of the violinists were former students of the concertmaster, though I wouldn't be too surprised if that was true. Last year I did write about a performance of Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto by Daniil Trifonov, where he seemed to be a nervous mess combined with technical abilities. His lack of stage presence took away from the live performance, and almost turned it into a recording studio type of session.

It seems most curious that the Russian school of training seems to be technical brilliance at the expense of stage presence, whereas for many western soloists it seems to be great stage presence combined with some sloppy passages throughout the performance.

Too Green?

I remember growing up that garbage was all one thing and that for recyclables only needed to have paper separated from the rest. Occasionally, especially during the fall season as the leaves fell, there would be a pickup for yard waste that you would leave as a pile on your curb. Back then, while living in the mid-atlantic, composting was something done on the household scale for garden use, if done at all.

On campus here there's a seemingly endless number of waste disposal methods. There's regular garbage, then there's several different recycling containers for mixed paper, glass, cardboard, etc., and of course compost. There are compost bins in areas away from lounges and food dispensaries. In bathrooms the primary disposal method is a compost bin for paper towels, with only a small trash can for landfill waste. This seems to be part of the university's mission to divert 70% of all waste by 2020 (which, incidentally I don't think will be possible given the amount of laboratory research that occurs on campus and the resulting waste). All these efforts are generally far beyond those of other areas, and this is very noticeable when I attend conferences on campus. During conference meals, attendees from out of town have a hard time sometimes distinguishing what goes in what bin (especially what is compostable and what isn't, especially with university catering doing their best to have food containers and utensils be compostable), and instructions are posted for our guests to actually dispose of their post-meal waste.

Last year the Seattle city council passed a measure that in which garbage containing more than 10% food waste could result in penalties, effectively forcing the populace to begin composting. The policy went into effect at the beginning of this year, and those not in compliance will be fined or penalized in some other fashion beginning July 1 with more serious offenders reprimanded at the beginning of next year. This seems to be the city's response in not meeting its goal of diverting 60% of its waste by 2015, and was basically the next stop from when the city banned the disposing of recyclable items with landfill waste back in 2005 (and even my homeowners association will impose a fine upon residents that are caught disposing recyclable materials in the garbage).

While we do only have finite resources and I do think it's great to encourage waste diversion, is it possibly too much to try to force everyone to be compliant?

Second Business Class Flight! Asiana New(ish) Business

Apparently I didn't actually finish this...
Continued from part 1, after my connection at ICN. Connecting at ICN was a breeze; only consisting of transit security (and definitely not the mess required with US CBP), making a 1-hour connection a breeze.

OZ204
ICN-LAX
Boeing 777-200ER
Seat 4A
January 2, 2015

Unlike the pervious day-time flight, this overnight flight featured the first generation of Asiana's new business class product. This means seats that actually turn into lay-flat surfaces and there is direct aisle access for all passengers. The staggered seating configuration means each seat also had a small table next to the seat, under which the small ottoman for the next passenger was located. I settled into one of the window seats with the seat next to the window (instead of a seat next to the aisle).

The cabin (Click to Enlarge)

Lang Lang With The Seattle Symphony

Lang Lang With The Seattle Symphony

Sunday, October 11

2 PM

Coriolan Overture - Ludwig van Beethoven

Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491

Allegro

Larghetto

Allegretto

Lang Lang, Piano

-Intermission-

Sections from Gli uccelli - Ottorino Respughi

Prelude

The Hen

The Cuckoo

Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 - Edvard Grieg

Allegro molto moderato

Adagio

Allegro moderato molto e marcato

Lang Lang, Piano

This concert was a huge disappointment to me, particularly given someone of Lang Lang's stature. I was most disappointed in his use of "artistic license". It's one thing to make a good thing of ritardandos and accelerandos, but when you completely use it to obliterate any sense of rhythmic integrity (for example the piano's first entrance in the Grieg), the notes turn into noise that lacks any direction, and completely changes the tone of the music. Additionally, he would keep on looking out at the audience, much like a pop "artist", and it seemed to detract from his focus as well, as there were multiple technically difficult passages that were not soundly played. Perhaps he should focus less on the onstage persona and more on the onstage performance. The music wasn't helped by the musician selection of the orchestra itself, as it seemed that the orchestra decided to forgo the idea of using its best musicians and instead, especially for the strings, use the oldest musicians under contract, and the quality greatly suffered as a result.

Also, since Lang Lang is a major Chinese celebrity, the Chinese turned out in major force. I for one generally cannot stand having a large group of Chinese people around me at an event that's not catered towards Chinese people, as they tend to misbehave and I look bad and get lumped in with them because I'm Chinese. This case was no exception of their misbehavior. Firstly, this resulted in some clapping between movements. I suppose it also doesn't help that half of the Chinese people were either pianists or their parents, none of whom have any understanding of orchestral music as they're too narrowly focused on their piano. Additionally, there was so much picture-taking and use of cell phones during the performance itself, and the performance was not treated with any type of formality (just like most Chinese events where silence and good behavior is not required). Also, the coughing and other noise-making was in no way silenced at all, compared to seasoned concertgoers who would at least try to muffle their sounds if possible. Needless to say when it comes to large groups of Chinese people we can't have nice things.

Seattle Symphony Opening Night!

Opening Night Concert & Gala

Saturday, September 19

7PM

Overture to Wonderful Town - Leonard Bernstein

Piano Concerto, Op. 30 - Samuel Barber

Allegro Molto

Kevin Ahfat, Piano

Winner, Seattle Symphony Piano Competition

Suite from Appalachian Spring - Aaron Copland

-Intermission-

Danse Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila - Camille Saint-Saëns

Piano Concerto No. 5 in F Major, Op. 103 "Egyptian" - Camille Saint-Saëns

Allegro animato

Andante

Molto allegro

Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Piano

After several long months, it is now time to usher in the 2015-2016 season of the Seattle Symphony, with a good number of guests dressed to the nines for the gala preceding the concert. The concert itself was the typical Seattle Symphony affair, with the orchestra being a little rough around the edges. I was very impressed with Kevin's performance as he mastered the Barber concerto and had great stage presence. Since I couldn't see his hands, I could only watch his face and feet, and you could really tell that he was having fun with the peace (though maybe a little too much, as his mouth rarely stayed closed during his performance. Thibaudet was even more impressive, with pinpoint technique to go along with a flowing melody. We were also treated to an encore of Saint-Saën's Carnaval des Animaux featuring our two soloists. The "Pianists" was nice and lighthearted, especially intentionally playing the scales out of time, and the performance concluded with the "Finale" movement. So far a great start to the season!

The Everlasting Struggle Bus

In most cases patrons of public transportation are not memorable and do nothing out of the ordinary to create anything worth remembering. However, here in Seattle, there is a sizably larger minority of travelers compared to most other places who decide that there should be some drama getting off the bus. These individuals tend to fall into two groups.

The first group of individuals don't cause problems, but it's always interesting to watch. These group of people seem completely oblivious to the fact that there's a big red light and a bell sound that go off when someone has already requested the bus to stop at the next stop. This usually means they'll pull the cord about 10 times wondering why there is no bell sound going off, usually while they're sitting there looking at their phones while trying to shove themselves out of the window seat by basically stepping through the passenger in the aisle seat while carrying 2 bags.

The second group of passengers is where problems have previously arisen. These passengers are the ones who under almost no circumstance will pull the cord. I've even overheard riders brag to their friends about how long they have gone without having to pull the cord (as if that's some kind of achievement). These people are generally alright as long as someone else who actually pulls the cord gets off at the same stop. However if they're the only one who wants to get off the bus, then we start having problems. Some of them will pull the cord at the last second possible, which usually results in a swift stop and a strong lurch, and some will even get off at the next stop someone else requests. However, what peeves me the most is when passengers will call to the driver for a stop. There is already a mechanism in place for you to request a stop that's used by almost all the other passengers, and apparently some passengers feel that it's so below them that they will verbally request a stop like it is their private chauffeur. Public transportation is not there to serve you at your whim, but is there to serve the community as a whole. Last week I even saw a passenger scream at the driver to stop at a stop that wasn't requested and kept shouting at the driver as he got off the bus as if the driver should have known that he wanted the bus to stop there. Unfortunately this is a regular occurrence in traveling with King County Metro, and each trip always leaves open the opportunity for another unwanted adventure.

Looking Back

Recently I received a small note in the mail from my high school, which is the first contact I had had with my high school since a year or so after graduating. They are in the process of trying to compile an alumni directory of sorts, which you would expect a high school of that size and (some) stature to already have been doing before 2015. Unfortunately this unwanted contact brought be back to those days, and also served as a stern reminder that no matter how hard to you try to distance yourself from something, you can always be found. (I mean, no one I went to high school with or grew up with should know my address.) Overall high school was pretty forgettable for me. I never really fit in, though that was more of my own choice and doing. Obviously I didn't need any reminders from that period of time-a time I no longer associate myself with.

Sensory Overload

As of late I've been gradually listening to more cpop compared to American/European tracks, as I find Chinese music to be much easier on the ears and mind. It's not overly distracting if I'm focusing on work and it doesn't throw a million things at me every second. Comparatively, it seems most western popular music seem to be quite in-your-face. I find it much more difficult to focus on work if I have western music in the background since the beats tend to be heavier and overly complicated in an attempt at attracting my every attention.

Idiocracy

The problem with watching the film Idiocracy is that, for a period of time after the film, I will look more closely than usual for any hint at society heading towards the direction of anti-intellectual attention-lacking idiots. So naturally today the latest thing I saw after I came home from work was none to pleasing.

Apparently on ESPN the audio on single-highlight videos has been replaced by music to engage viewers instead of using either existing commentary from the original broadcast or whatever the microphones at the field pick up. Think about that for a second-even for 15-second highlights ESPN feels there is a need to use music to engage the audience to drive clicks (and thus revenue) compared to any competing service, and that existing commentary is not enough to get enough people to watch a highlight. This kind of falls into the reign of click-bait headlines trying to get your attention with some ridiculously stupid phrase such as "You won't believe what happens next!"

Perhaps I'm digging down the rabbit hole a little to far...

Television and Irrational Behavior

A while back I was on a plane flight and, with not much else to do to pass six hours, watched a seasons of Parks and Recreation, the first sitcom (or any other television program outside of sports) that I had watched in probably ten or so years. It will probably be at least ten more years before I watch another television program, because watching television makes me irrationally angry and unable to enjoy the program.

This irrational anger stems from the irrational behavior often exhibited in these shows, often to create a plot or develop character developments and foils. However, what I am unable to get past is why it's acceptable to behave irrationally in television when it is often not acceptable to do so in real life. Given that these sitcoms are often supposed to be funny, these behavior is often trivialized. (Of course, if I wanted to watch comedy without any sense of morality or political correctness, then I'd rather watch Dave Chapelle or whatever where everything goes instead of sitcoms that feel forced).

In Parks and Recreation, I could not stand Leslie Knope, because the character was always acting in an irrational manner and was mostly selfishly thinking about herself, which is a common trait prevalent through society. Most of the other characters I couldn't stand as well, like Tom's creepy flirting and Andy's immaturity. I have a hard time being entertained while this type of behavior is occurring. While I can understand enjoying comedy for comedy's sake, I don't like it when I see people who behave like these sitcom characters and model their personalities and actions as such.

Perhaps this may be a case of looking at everything as a potential effect of society's anti-intellectualism movement towards the trend of Idiocracy, where people no longer think for themselves and allow the corporations and media to control everything, but I have a hard time believing that society will ever become more forward-thinking.

Cricket and Picking Up Local Culture

When I travel abroad (or sometimes within the states), I always like to try something new and try to take it home with me. Previous attempts have more or less failed, such as a gravlax habit that would have been prohibitively expensive here in the states or gradually losing interest in international rugby after the 2011 world cup.

Ever since I went to Australia I have been fascinated with cricket and even attended a couple T20 matches ahead of the cricket world cup, and I have been able to maintain an interest in cricket long after my interest in other foreign tidbits has already faded. During work I can tune into a test match and have it running in the background, and watching limited-overs cricket leads to every ball being important, which can't exactly be said for many other sports. Even in test cricket, where the strike rate is relatively unimportant, can provide constant entertainment over several days, such as the current iteration of The Ashes. Combine test and limited-overs cricket, and you have a sport that could entertain in any situation.

It seems that the primary hurdle of watching cricket is achieving a basic understanding of the rules, as otherwise it would be impossible to enjoy the game. While the game doesn't seem quite so complex after watching for a while, I realized that it can be very difficult to explain to other people with all the ways to get runs, to get out, etc. Once that significant hurdle has been overcome, it seems that cricket can be something I can enjoy for a long time to come.

Panda Cheese

Back in 2010, Panda Cheese, a cheese made by an Egyptian dairy company, made commercials featuring a panda destroying stuff. I remember these commercials having great success over the internet and having quite a few good chuckles back in the way. I was reminded of these commercials recently, and while they still provide good comedic value, I was more curious about the song featured in the commercial.

Buddy Holly's True Love Ways is reminiscent of songs of generations past, where the instrumental was more than just a series of beats and the chorus didn't repeat over and over again. The lyrics were meant to be meaningful and the song overall was easy on the ears, instead of today's overstimulus in all facets of life. Kind of like...

Mahler Symphony No. 3

Mahler Symphony No. 3

Saturday, June 20, 2015

8 PM

Symphony No. 3 in D minor - Gustav Mahler

Kräftig, Entschieden

Tempo di menuetto: Sehr mässig

Comodo, scherzando, ohno Hast

Sehr langsam, misterioso

Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck

Sehr langsam und durchaus mit inningster Empfindung

Christianne Stotjin, mezzo-soprano

Northwest Boychoir

Women of the Seattle Symphony Corale

This was my final concert for the 2014-2015 season, and needless to say I was excited heading into the concert, as it's not every day someone performs a Mahler symphony. Most are marathon affairs, and the third symphony is no exception, with the performance clocking in a shade under 2 hours from start to finish. I was impressed by the overall body of work , but as usual, I was not blown away by the performance. Most of the piece was technically sound and everything was together for the most part (and they even sent the trumpet player up high into the balcony for the 3rd[?] movement), but there were some things that stuck out (including the dude two rows in front of me and the guy next to me who were both using their phones during the performance).  Firstly, it is my belief that no one individual should stand out during the performance, but at every performance, there is one guy in the first violin section who sticks out like a sore thumb. He is much more animated than the rest of the section (and by a long shot), and it's always a little unnerving for me to see a head (and the musician) not quite in sync with the rest of the section, bobbing and swaying excessively to a point where I feel it is distracting. Additionally I didn't feel that the soloist was able to project into the hall, as I had some difficulty hearing her in the middle of the orchestra-level seating.

As the season has concluded, you are now free from hearing me write about my Seattle Symphony performances until September! Rejoice!

End of a Musician

Before I went to college, playing music wasn't about playing for fun, but instead music was about being the best musician possible (and hopefully the fun would follow). I had started to take the violin very seriously and I was even considering it as a career option. To that point I even attended Interlochen Arts Camp in high school in addition to the standard high school orchestra festivals. Outside of my academics, playing the violin was probably the endeavor I took most seriously.

To that point I ended up electing to study to become an engineer and, after high school, music became a much lower priority. There was no longer time for me to be able to continue playing at the level that I had become accustomed to playing, and playing music primarily turned into an outlet for stress relief. While I was able to play in the orchestra for two years and play chamber music all four years, I didn't receive the same fulfillment as I previously had. I wasn't thrilled that I was playing at a decreased ability, and the stress relief outlet didn't quite compensate for the lack of enjoyment. My motivation was greatly reduced, along with my desire to play music. At that point music was no longer an immensely integral part of my life. This culminated with one last hurrah-playing Brahms' String Quartet No. 1 in C minor and walking off into the proverbial musical sunset.

It has now been a little over two years since I've picked up my violin, and I'm not sure when I will next bring it out of its case and play it again. Now there is no end goal of becoming a better musician, and I find it difficult to play music without direction.

Brahms Symphony No. 1

Brahms Symphony No. 1

Thursday, June 11, 2015

7:30 PM

Egmont Overture - Ludwig van Beethoven

In lieblicher Bläue for Violin and Orchestra (US Premiere) - Julian Anderson

Carolin Widmann, Violin

-Intermission-

Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 - Johannes Brahms

Un poco sostenuto - Allegro

Andante sostenuto

Un poco allegretto e grazioso

Adagio - Più andante - Allegro non troppo, ma con brio

Originally I wasn't planning on going to this performance, but I had a change in plans and I was unable to attend Pinchas Zukerman's performance. I was able to exchange that ticket for this one, as subscribers are allowed to have free exchanges. I have always been a fan of the Egmont Overture and the Brahms symphony, but I'm always skeptical of anything recent, and Anderson's work did nothing to dissuade me from my dislike of contemporary music, where I feel that the composers are so obsessed with following rules that the choose these rules over the music itself. The work began with the soloist offstage before the soloist emerges and begins playing from the side of the orchestra. The white noise continued, and the piece concluded with the soloist turning away from the audience. Interestingly, this performance was the first time I had heard the conductor speak before a Seattle Symphony performance (another no-no in my book). Barring another change in travel plans I'm hoping to avoid any more performances featuring anything contemporary.

Cities: Skylines

Cities: Skylines has been out for a while now, and I've been having a lot of fun playing the game. It's basically almost everything you wanted the Sim City franchise to be, and it's much more addicting than any previous Sim City game.

My favorite part of Cities: Skylines is how you can turn the game into a sandbox for whatever your creativity comes up with. The game allows the build of custom assets so that you can supplement the stock assets the game provides. Additionally, the game allows for modding, allowing for amazing user-generated content. If you can imagine it and build the mod, it's available for your use. For example, the Traffic++ mod can be used to create bus lanes in the road and can restrict turns at intersections for better traffic control. One of the built-in mods allows for infinite money so that you can be completely free to do whatever your heart desires without having to make your city viable at all.

Cities: Skylines also improves upon a lot of other things that were wrong with Sim City. When you start building the city, it becomes very evident that the Cities: Skylines road-building tool is much better, allowing for customized curved roads, and roads at different heights (and trying to create crazy interchanges as a result). In addition, the engine itself for Cities: Skylines would simulate every individual and assign them to jobs at specific locations and to specific residences, instead of the nearest location. The traffic simulation is also much better, with Cities: Skylines providing a detailed simulation, leading to emergent puzzles where players will have to adjust how the build their road system to better cope with how traffic develops (and this is easily one of the most challenging things with the game-developing a smart road system that can handle high traffic without huge backlogs). With the detail in the simulation, you can see where each person is going, where they work, and where they live. The same works for vehicles, such that each person/car/building/etc actually serves a purpose instead of just being there, which is what Sim City does.

What's also great is that Colossal Order, the minds behind the game, continue to develop the game. For example, the first big update included the use of tunnels for roads and trains and multi-levels underground in addition to controlling the height of the roads in the base release.

Naturally, playing the game doesn't mean I'm any good at traffic simulation, and I often continue to create huge traffic messes. However, the dynamic nature of the game prevents me from settling on anything and provides an ongoing challenge to keep me interested long after I stopped playing other games.

Pot-Bellied Cyclists

One of the most interesting things I see on a regular basis are cyclists who seem to have a little too much in the belly department. It's always a little humorous to see people dressed in the standard biking jersey and shorts carrying some extra weight. While these individuals are fairly active, especially those I see most days commuting to work, there are several reason I believe this to be the case.

Cycling isn't particularly a full-body exercise, especially if you're leisurely biking without an intent to treat it as working out. While it's great that you're biking to work or getting out on the weekends for an easy ride, not using your upper body at all just might lead to a slight pot belly. Having an overall good body of work would probably require working out the entire body.

Another idea is more psychological, in that people seek to reward themselves after exercising. Except, instead of rewarding, they use exercise as an excuse to maintain unhealthy parts of a lifestyle ("if I go to the gym, then I can have this chocolate bar/burger/etc"). Obviously these things don't cancel out, and good overall health requires a good diet as well.

Maybe so, maybe not, but these cyclists always give me a good chuckle.

City Sterility and The Idyllic Use of Rustic

Recently I received a catalog from Uncommon Goods in the mail, and several items were highlighted as being "rustic". For example, a set of large wooden dice in a brown cloth bag and a beer caddie made out of wood are both characterized as "rustic". While perusing the catalog, it was very apparent that Uncommon Goods tended to target what I call rich "city people", where many of the items served very specialized functions and command large price premiums.

This interesting sales pitch of essentially just using more natural materials in making objects seem more "rustic" is an interesting observation of the thought process of those who primarily are exposed to cities. Our living spaces have become jungles of concrete and metal, and the great outdoors are often absent from the urban environment.

With these observations I tend to associate cities with being too sterile. Everything is supposed to be clean from the environment, and nature is seen as dirty. Dirt almost seems revolting and non-domesticated animals become freaks. People have become so separated from the outdoors to the point that it seems to be a plague that contaminates on contact. (Ok that might be a big too much hyperbole, but the general idea stands).

What this has been replaced by is a more idyllic view of the "rustic" country style, where people sit on their beautiful porches all day overlooking perfect views (which of course are somehow super clean without the rest of nature getting in the way (or the real life). It would be entertaining to see "city people" spend an extended period of time away from the cities to see what it's really like to live out in the middle of nowhere.

Trying New Ingredients

Part of cooking is learning new things to expand the cookbook, which definitely helps cut down on the monotony and repetitiveness that cooking can become. So every once in a while, I'll pick up a new ingredient from the Asian grocery store and give it a shot, often with mixed results (as expected).

My latest epic failure was cooking with Thai chilies. I'm a huge fan of Thai food, and I though it would be interesting to substitute a chili paste I use with some Thai chilies. However, I greatly underestimated their spiciness the first around, and ended up dicing six of them for a single serving, seeds and all. Naturally that did not end well, and it took me almost an hour to finish my dinner. Since then I've cut down the amount of chilies I use in a single serving (one or two now supplemented with a little chili paste) to add another flavor profile to my dishes.

Lately I've been greatly expanding my mushroom library when it comes to cooking. Before I consciously began exploring new ingredients my primary mushrooms and fungi of choice were white mushroom, shiitake mushroom, and wood ear fungus. Recently I've began cooking with enoki, oyster, and chanterelle (at the right price) mushrooms. However, I'd have to say that my favorite has been the shimeji mushrooms, particularly hon shimeji (which should NOT be eaten raw). The particular variety seems to absorb flavors pretty well without wilting too much; maintaining enough crunch without being bland. I've tried it with several different preparations, and it seems to hold up as a pretty versatile to the point where it seems to have become my mushroom of preference. Shimeji mushrooms also seem to keep much better than other varieties of fresh mushrooms, which also makes it an attractive option since I only go grocery shopping once a week.

Visiting The South

This past weekend I traveled to the deep south for the first time (because we all know Florida doesn't count as the deep south), spending the weekend in the Mississippi gulf coast town of Ocean Springs. Naturally I wasn't expecting how the south is portrayed in the media and entertainment industries where everyone sits on their porches with sweet tea overlooking vast plains of grass (and other portrayed stereotypes). However, I am unable to provide a great perspective, as I was pretty busy with an event most of the weekend and I wasn't able to really explore. I was only able to go out to eat once, and that was the Wendy's next to the hotel because the Waffle House was too far away. All my other meals were catered as part of the event, which didn't help me explore the south.

That being said, there were a good number of observations. Everyone I engaged with seemed happy to just chat and shoot the breeze, starting with my taxi driver from the airport, who essentially gave me a small commentary of the coastal areas we were passing from Gulfport to Ocean Springs and continuing onward with the drivers of the shuttles for the event. At Wendy's (and a restaurant at the airport) every customers were addressed as Sir of Madam. They're also really into their soda (or coke as they call it). The Wendy's had one of those touchscreen soda machines, but the selection was huge-they carried seemingly every known variation of Coca Cola (including the flavored variations) and Fanta flavors (lime) that I had never heard of before. No wonder obesity is such a problem. They also really like their sweet tea, and I have to say it's quite tasty, and I even took the liberty of making my first Arnold Palmer (and I see why people like it so much). However I would have to say that the Mississippi gulf coast is a place I would like to stay for an extended period of time-sure the food would be good for a few days, but after a while I would easily get bored.

Taking Flight

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LSO!

London Symphony Orchestra

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

7:30 PM

Michael Tilson Thomas, Conductor

"Four Sea Interludes" from Peter Grimes, Op. 33a - Benjamin Britten

Dawn: Leno e tranquillo

Sunday Morning: Allgro spiritoso

Moonlight: Andante comodo e rubato

Storm: Presto con fuoco

Concerto in F - George Gershwin

Allegro

Adagio-Andante con moto

Allegro agitato

Yujia Wang, Piano

-Intermission-

Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47 - Dmitri Shostakovich

Moderato

Allegretto

Largo

Allegro non troppo

This past week I had the pleasure of attending a performance by the London Symphony Orchestra, known in popular culture as being the orchestra that plays a lot of movie scores. The orchestra was led by MTT, one of the LSO's guest conductors, for his 70th birthday tour. I also noticed that he had previously worked with the soloist, most prominently during the first YouTube Symphony Orchestra.

Naturally, the LSO is much better than the Seattle Symphony-the orchestra is much more technically sound and plays much better as a unit. The orchestra flows as one body, and MTT, despite his age, was still very animated. The main issue I had with the performance was with the stage presence of the soloist. While she was very technically sound (and has some of the fastest fingers I have ever seen), it seemed she didn't know what to do when she wasn't playing the piano. I was almost afraid that she would trip and hit her head on something given how fast she went through her bowing motion. At least she wasn't as awkward as the pianist that played Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto earlier in the season. The concert did run very long with three total encores, and by the time the final note was played, only around half the audience remained-it seemed that people did tire a little bit towards the end, as three hours for a concert is longer than most.

A Dose of Contemporary

Catalyst Quartet

Thursday, March 19, 2015

7:30 PM

Karla Donehew-Perez, Violin

Jessie Montgomery, Violin

Paul Laraia, Viola

Karlos Rodreguez, Cello

String Quartet No. 1 - Charles Ives

Chorale: Andante con moto

Prelude: Allegro

Offertory: Adagio cantabile

Postlude: Allegro marziale

String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima" - Philip Glass

1957: Award Montage

November 25: Ichigaya

Grandmother and Kimitake

1962: Body Building

Blood Oath

Mishima/Closing

In Memory - Joan Tower

-Intermission-

Strum - Jessie Montgomery

Tenebrae - Osvaldo Golijov

String Quartet Op. 11 - Samuel Barber

Molto allegro e appassionato

Adagio

Molto allegro (come prima) - Presto

The Catalyst Quartet is a much younger quartet that likes to play a lot of contemporary music. Naturally I'm not a fan of contemporary music, but I did attend the concert since it is part of the Chamber Music Series and I bought tickets to see the entire series. While the musicianship was fine it didn't mask the overuse of dissonance that has been all too present in an effort to follow certain musical rules at the expense of the music just sounding good. What was interesting is that the Catalyst Quartet certainly lacked the stage presence of more seasoned quartets. For example, after they finished a piece, they would bow, sit down, bow again, and rearrange the violin players (the only professional quartet that didn't have set first and second violinists). It just seemed that outside of playing the music itself, the quartet wasn't really sure what they were doing, almost as if they were playing together for the first time and never really went over things such as bowing at the end of a piece. It really detracted from the performance and would make the Catalyst Quartet not worth a repeat attendance.

Sibelius Festival!

Currently the Seattle Symphony is in the midst of its Sibelius Festival, where it will perform all of Sibelius' symphonies and other select works over the course of several weeks. This past weekend I was able to attend the first series of performances featuring the first two symphonies and guest conductor Thomas Gausgaard.

Luminous Landscapes: Sibelius Symphonies 1 & 2

Saturday, March 14, 2014

8 PM

Thomas Dausgaard, Conductor

Finlandia, Op. 26, No 7 - Jean Sibelius

Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39 - Jean Sibelius

Andante, ma non troppo - Allegro energico

Andante, ma non troppo lento

Scherzo: Allegro

Finale (quasi una fantasia): Andante - Allegro molto

-Intermission-

Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 43

Allegretto

Andante, ma rubato

Vivacissimo

Finale: Allegro moderato

With Dausgaard, the conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, at the helm, this was easily the best performance by the Seattle Symphony I had witnessed thus far. Dausgaard brought a sense of excitement and energy that the orchestra had previously lacked, making the performance much less mechanical than previous performances. Dausgaard's passion and extensive knowledge of Sibelius was very apparent. Unfortunately I will be out of town for the remaining concerts of the series, but if you get the chance and are able to definitely find some tickets to the remaining concerts.

Restaurant Spending Now Outpacing Grocery Store Spending

Recently I came across some interesting data from the American Enterprise Institute on the food spending habits of Americans. For the first time since statistics were tracked, the amount of money that Americans are spending at restaurants outpaced the amount being spent in grocery stores for the first time this January.

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Naturally, since this comes from the American Enterprise Institute from a professor of economics, the primary issue that is addressed in the publication (and several others that note the milestone) is of the economic nature, in that the improving economy has lead to increased discretionary spending, and thus increased restaurant wages (the last part being a very recent trend). It's interesting that the social and personal aspect of this has more or less been ignored, particularly as to why this has just happened, instead of before the most recent recession (though trends from then also indicated that this would be happening).

First Business Class Flight! Asiana Old Business

The following is adapted from my trip report from Flyertalk, and will be split into two posts (one for each flight). These flights came at the conclusion of my winter trip to Australia and were booked on points, saving me a lot of money in the process.

Part 2 can be found here!

OZ602
SYD-ICN
Boeing 777-200ER
Seat 2D
January 2, 2015

I was sad to leave Australia and return to the relative cold of the US (and returning to work). However, I had been looking forward to these flights in particular due to it being my first time in a real premium cabin and flying a new airline (Asiana).

Our plane at the gate (Click to Enlarge)

Jerusalem Quartet!

Jerusalem Quartet

Thursday, February 19, 2015

7:30 PM

Alexander Pavlovsky, Violin

Sergei Bresler, Violin

Ori Kam, Viola

Kyril Zlotnikov, Cello

Quartet No. 59 in G minor, Op. 74, No. 3 "Rider" - Franz Joseph Haydn

Allegro

Largo assai

Menuetto: Allegretto

Finale: Allegro con brio

String Quartet No. 4, Sz. 91 - Béla Bartók
Allegro
Prestissimo, con sordino
Non troppo lento
Allegretto pizzicato
Allegro molto

-Intermission-

String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810 "Death and the Maiden" - Franz Schubert
Allegro
Theme and Variations: Andante con moto
Scherzo: Allegro molto
Presto

This was a truly spectacular performance by the Jerusalem Quartet. The quartet was the most technically sound of all the chamber groups thus far this season; able to masterfully execute all the running passages and in particular the chaos that is the Bartók. I was very impressed with the cellist in particular. The quartet was also the most musically talented of the chamber groups this season, able to play as a group, covering the spectrum of musical expression. I was a huge fan of how they performed the Haydn and Schubert, and they at least made the Bartók bearable instead of the random jumbled mess of sound that it normally sounds like. Hopefully I'll get to see them perform again!

Theme Hospital

For a limited time, Theme Hospital is available for free on Origin (this is slightly old news). It's great that Origin is offering the game for free, but the bad news is that you have to deal with Origin.

Theme Hospital came out in 1998, long before I started any sort of gaming, but it comes from the era where games were much simpler (mostly because they couldn't be complex), but the games were still difficult. It's not like today's iteration of FPS games, where you have to memorize map layouts far in advance to beat the game at its highest difficulty levels bundled together with complex structures. With these older games there are only a few basic mechanisms, and really seem to relish in you failing (like trying to beat Super Mario on the SuperNintendo).

Theme Hospital, as the name suggests, is a game where you try to manage a hospital through increasingly difficult scenarios, trying to maintain a profit and happy patients combined with a few other objectives. It's actually a lot of fun and I'm having a difficult time putting it down...

The Importance of Conversation

...or more specifically, the importance of your conversation (to yourself, naturally).

I tend to people-watch when I'm on the bus (that is, when I'm not asleep myself), and I have a good 20-25 minute commute to and from work aboard the King County Metro's buses. It's always interesting to see what happens, and conversation tends to lead to interesting observations. Of course, these are not my conversations, but those of others.

The buses, particularly on the commute home from work, tend to be very crowded, and oftentimes the aisle of the bus becomes standing room. Naturally, when there are only a few seats left, and when friends get on the bus together, one person takes an available seat, and the other person, seeing that there are no nearby seats, stands in the aisle next to their friend to continue their conversation. Naturally, this happens while the bus is still on campus, with a good number of people still wanting to get on the bus. Of course, the second friend is standing in the aisle near the front of the bus and is always completely oblivious to the crowd that is gathering at the front of the bus. Almost always the person plugging the aisle will not move and instead makes everyone else pull a swim move to get around to access the rest of the aisle space to let everyone else actually get on the bus. It's always interesting that people think their conversations are so important such that they'll endure 30+ people to swim around them in the not so wide aisle over several stops. It always feels that people are so unaware of their surroundings, though these days I'm never surprised anymore (even when cops show up and arrest someone off the bus).

Naturally, this problem will only get worse, as King County Metro is continuing to reduce service due to an increase funding gap, resulting in a lot more swimming around unaware self-important undergrads.

Revisiting Perlman.

This past Thursday I had the opportunity to see Itzhak Perlman perform for the third time (I believe) and conduct for the first time. Naturally I was very excited to attend this concert.

Itzhak Perlman with the Seattle Symphony

Thursday, January 15, 2015

7:30 PM

Violin Concerto No. 2 in E Major, BWV 1042 - Johann Sebastian Bach

Allegro

Adagio

Allegro assai

Itzhak Perlman, Violin

Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 - Johannes Brahms

-Intermission-

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55, "Eroica" - Ludwig van Beethoven

Allegro con brio

Marcia funebre: Adagio assai

Scherzo: Allegro vivace

Finale: Allegro molto

Previously when I had seen Perlman perform, he actually came onto the stage on his motorized scooter. This time, he chose to walk on stage supported by two forearm crutches. While it was great to see his resolve, it often took a lot of time for him to get on (and off) stage, and the audience wasn't particularly great at sustaining the applause either. That being said, he is still more than capable of playing the violin, and played the Bach with the same warmth and technical dexterity that we have all been accustomed to over the years. His conducting wasn't of much note and I didn't feel it added much to the performance (and I pay to hear soloists play, not dabble in other things). I left slightly disappointed in the overall performance, mostly due to my high expectations coming in to the performance.

More Chamber Music!

This past Tuesday I had the pleasure of hearing the Takács quartet as part of the UW World Series program. This follows the previous performance by the Miró quartet last November.

Takács Quartet
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
7:30 PM

Edward Dusinberre, Violin
Károly Schranz, Violin
Geraldine Walther, Viola
András Fejér, Cello

Quartet No. 50 in B-flat Major, Op. 64, No. 3 - Franz Joseph Haydn
Vivace assai
Adagio
Menuetto: Allegretto
Finale: Allegro con spirit

String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D. 804, Op. 29 - Franz Schubert
Allegro ma non troppo
Andante
Menuetto: Allegretto
Allegro moderato

-Intermission-

String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130 - Ludwig van Beethoven
Adagio ma non troppo-Allegro
Presto
Andante con moto, ma non proppo-Poco scherzoso
Alla danza tdesca. Allegro assai
Cavatina. Adagio molto espressivo
Finale: Allegro

Overall I was very impressed with this performance-this quartet has been playing together for a long time, and it shows. All the passages are generally well-coordinated and they were able to play the lighter passages in the Haydn and the heavier parts in the Beethoven with ease. However, there were several things that did leave me unhappy. Firstly, the violist decided to choose her own dress code while the other members wore only black, daring to wear a red shawl. I'm a little old school in believing that there some be some uniformity in the dress. Also, I feel like the second violinist is probably past his prime and seemed to occasionally try to set a new tempo separate from the other members, which seemed to cause some pretty tense moments on the stage. Otherwise I was generally happy with the performance.

Happy New Year From the Sydney Opera House!

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