A blog entry for the sake of blogging

So for the sake of blogging, I shall ponder on the idea of having a car. The only thing I really enjoyed about having a car was the ability to drive to random places at random moments. I remember grabbing my parents' Toyota Camry and driving north to these random little towns, parking the car there and walking around taking photographs and talking to these extremely friendly small town/country folks. I discovered an awesome little town with a community of sculptors near Orangeville. While talking to the folks there, I even scored myself an apprenticeship with one of the stone carvers. What a life eh, if I had taken that apprenticeship instead of coming to California.

I like the randomness somehow. Just walk up and wonder to some random and obscure part. I love walking randomly in the obscure parts of the city, but i guess cars are good for doing the same for out of town stuff.

Am i going to buy a car? meh i doubt it.. not now. Some pictures from some random drives in Ontario....

dünya dinlemiyor

(taken from http://209.34.87.106/media/03.D%c3%9cNYA_stills_06_0612131157259.jpg)

I was at SF MOMA yesterday, and I saw this video installation of people karaoke-ing to Smiths. This was brilliant. This work by Phil Collins (not the singer), a British artist. This piece of art.. "features young people in Istanbul performing karaoke versions of songs by the 1980s band The Smiths. Within the politically fraught context of Istanbul, The Smiths' melancholic pop takes on new poignancy, asking us to listen to what the rest of the world won'"

Other than the whole pop-politics link, I think whats amusing was the just watching people of one culture singing to the popular western tunes. Some of them were amazing singers by the way. Like this girl can really sing well. The song she picked totally suited her voice, and she was cute. Everyone in the room stayed to see her "perform" just mesmerized by her screen presence in some way.

What I should do is, go to India and ask people there to sing some American tunes ;)
That's right Mr.Rickshaw driver, oops you did it again!

Amusing and I feel bored post - do not take this seriously

crushes for every occasion, crushes for every location
I guess that makes things more interesting.
From my rock star crush to my long term cafe crush.
From my local grocery store crush to my everyday commute train crush.
I wish i could be who they wanted, i wish i could be who they wanted ... all the time.

Fine so I took the last line from a Radiohead song, Fine if that was not really a song either. Not even a poem. Well, in any case, that is what I wish the blab (blog) about this evening. I saw this short film at the North By North East festival in Toronto 2005, which was titled "My rockstar crush." It talked about this girl's rockstar crush.. duh.. and all other crushes like "the guy who stand at the corner reading a newspaper crush", "9:30Am bus number 26 crush" etc etc. I saw the movie and thought about how funny and yet so real this concept was. My life, however, at that moment was much too random to develop such consistent crushes.

Having been in San Francisco for a year now, and having developed some sort of weekday routine, I can say that I indeed have developed crushes of such sort. Amusing, interesting, and some might even say sad. But what the heck, it makes things more interesting in some way or the other. I know at least one short-film maker who would agree with me.

The interesting thing about these crushes are that they are not that serious. It is just sometimes that you would see/meet a person many times under the same circumstances, and you find something fascinating about them. I don't know how to start describing them... but I guess I will try to sort them in the order I would encounter them on an ideal-silly_crush-day.

1) The morning coffee girl... this girl has a very slight resemblance to Tasha Yan from Star Trek:TNG. One day some months ago, she was extra chatty, and semi-flirty when I was getting my Sunday morning wake-up poison. I thought, hey shes cool... and there it started.. every time i see here... there is this flirty exchange of "what did you eat for breakfast today"

2) This girl who has the world's coolest brown coloured bag in the world. She gets on at 4th/king Caltrain station and gets off at Palo Alto. Perhaps works/studies at Stanford. She doesn't seem the student type though. She wears quit hard boots and striped pants and very interesting jackets. One day I saw her noticing my booklet of GRE word definitions. Next morning I see her memorizing GRE words from flash cards. So it started...

3) The girl in the newly opened grocery store who I had often seen in the library with like 10 calculus books. Now she works at new grocery store.. no story there

4) rock star crushes - Emily Haines, Valerie Jodoin-Keaton, Feist, Christine Bougie, list goes on.. what can i say, I am into musicians. So yeah any of you musicians reading this, email me ;)

4) the cafe crush!!! my longest crush probably... ooh i see her right now... GOT'A RUN LATER!!!!

Sweet Sweet 69

Wednesday was the day of Percussion, because Pink Mountaintops were playing, thats why !!! They had two different sets of drums. 2 drummers! and the amazing vocals and lyrics which seems to be mostly about sex, drugs, and living on the steet. That is Pink Mountaintops baby (the more solo-centric version of Black Mountain).

They came on stage a bit late for a weeknight, cos there were 2 bands openings, one of them took their sweet time to set things up. Show was opened by "The Morning Benders", some kids from the east bay, Berkeley-Oakland area; followed by "Darker My Love" which were more loud than dark. Great music though, too loud to actually hear the dark lyrics.

Sad to say, I stepped out during the Darker My Love performance. Not a good day to hear very loud music. I saw Stephen McBean (Pink Mountaintops) outside smoking his cigarette. I felt like walking up to him and saying something. I really do love his stuff from both Black Mountain and Pink Mountaintops. I just did not want to sound like a groupie of some sort. I did walk up to him to say Hi.


The whole band seems so chilled. They kicked into awesome music. I was pleasantly surprised to see Amber Webber there. I love her vocals in Black Mountain, but as expected she wasn't really there to sing. It was still good to see her for some reason. The music lineup was pretty much all hits including "I fuck mountains" - I should have asked McBean what he really meant by that, but oh well, maybe next time.

During the performance of Sweet 69, the guy on the keyboard joined the drums. That's right folks, THREE people on the drums at the same time. It was amazing! They ended the show with Atmosphere, with the girls pulling "dun dun dun dun dun dun dun ... " background vocals throughout the song.

They left the crowd wanting for more. Being a weekday, most of the crowd started dispersing, but this other guy and I was still cheering them on to come back! alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Enjoy the Pink Mountaintop Pictures

Karma Police, arrest the train conductor

Good deed of the day: I pushed a drunken homeless guy on a wheelchair with both legs fractured for almost a mile (excuse my use of silly american units of length).
This nice lady decides to stop us to ask the guy "Are you the same guy who sits in front of Safeway".
The guys affirms.
"Do you need food?"
"No, not today. I need blankets though"
"Haha well I don't have blankets. Will you be needing food tomorrow?"
"Yeh, sure"
"Do you like fish?"
"No!"
She and I share a weird glance at that, followed by both of us rolling our eyes.
"Haha," she said, "ok I will get you something tomorrow"
"yeh, but blankets would be nice too"
"Well it seems this guy is in a hurry," *looks at me*
*Darn right I was, I had a train to catch in 4 minutes*

anyhooo... the conversation ended, and I ran towards the station pushing the wheelchair with me. Now, just at the end of the street, took me over a minute to get the wheel chair off the road and into the walkway. I missed the train.. by 10 seconds. Stupid train conductor waves me bye.. IDIOT!!!

Karma, you better darn exist, cos I definitely deserve some good karma for that.

I feel so dilated

Just got back from the eye doctor... my eyes and my body feel so dilated ! The doctor scared me by complaining about my eye pressures... saying it could be a sign of glaucoma. I was freaking out. On further examination, he gave me a clean chit. "Your eyes are healthy Mr.Shihn" Damn right they are! Well they are not perfect, but hey they are glaucoma free.

In other news, American Apparel hoodies fit so well. I feel 15lbs lighter with a fitter chest. Woot!

Sad and gloomy you may be, the sparkle is still there
The eyes say it all, as they never learn the art of acting
Scratching the surface can be amusing,
but why worry about the superficial scars.
If it is the destination you seek,
why do you worry about the ride?
Go ahead, tear yourself apart,
There is someone beautiful inside.

Ha Ha to you Mr. Prime Minister, Ha Ha

The members of parliament have voted against the bid to reopen same-sex marriage debate. Bravo! I think Stephen Harper was confident that he would at least get a debate, if not the final verdict. But dude, the parliament has already spent months debating the issue, you just don't keep undoing what your predecessor did. If that were the case then every new government would cause another law change and another debate. Same sex marriage or any issue as a matter of fact could flip flop every few years.

Twelve tories voted against the motion, 6 of them were cabinet ministers. What does that say? eh. I quote Peter McKay, "It was simply a matter that I felt had received fair discussion and airing in the House of Commons and other venues, and I feel there are other pressing matters before the Canadian people and certainly before this chamber right now." Well said Mr. Minister of Foreign Affairs (who might be romantically linked to Condy Rice.... from Belinda Stronach to Condy Rice... )

Anyhoo... i snagged this play list from the Amy Millan show. I believe Christine Bougie was using this list, so it is probably her handwriting too.

Amy, how do I love thy craziness, let me count the ways...

She was whacky
She was awkward
She was a bit crazy
Yet, she was so normal

Amy Millan, my friends, is probably the same right now as she was when she was before she joined Stars. She has a weird awkward thing about her which is hard to pin point 'cos it's all over her. That's what makes her so admirable.

The show on December 5th at The Independent was much more lively than when I saw her in Toronto few months back. She was outrageously chatty last night. She covered her awkwardness by even more awkwardness. She was brilliant.

There is no question, she has an amazing voice. She was accompanied by 6 other musician. She performed most of the stuff from 'Honey from the tombs' and a couple of new songs and a couple of Stars' tracks.

Most of the show was quite mellow, although they totally rocked out for one of the numbers, and a track where Amy displayed her fascinating (and yet awkward - again) stage dancing skills. She came on stage with a wine glass. She left the stage 2 times and made sure that she took the glass with her.

That is right folks, Amy Millan inspires me to drink red wine.

Click here for Amy Millan @ The Independent pictures

The Dears rocked my socks

Last night "The Dears" totally rocked the show at The Independent. Definitely one the best concerts I have been to in a long time. A lot of the crowd wasn't expecting them to totally go all rocking and loud. Some even left! Everyone else was just blown away by their stormy (in a great way) performance. They performed mostly from "Gang of Losers" and some tracks from "No cities left". It was brilliant. It was amazing. I guess i have used enough hyperbole, but it was so worth it. Go buy their new record!!

The Dears were opened by "Young Galaxy". I was looking forward to seeing them live. I had heard them on Arts&Crafts, but their live performance was quite amazing. They would be something like an amalgamation of Stars and Arcade Fire. Great Stuff. The guitar work was kinda low perhaps, but Catherine McCandless' vocals were amazing.

It also happened to be one of my more productive "concert photography" days. Check out the awesome pictures of the Dears at: The Dears - pictures

Also pictures of Young Galaxy at: Young Galaxy - pictures

Tee Vee

American Thanksgiving Weekend - I go back home to Toronto. Eat a lot !!! Sit on the couch all day. Watch TV !

That's right. I made up for all the TV watching that I don't do in San Francisco. I am so glad we don't have a boob-tube in the house. So much time gets wasted on the couch. pssshhh. Thank you Lisa for making the home TV free.

So, while I was on my TV rampage, I watched 10 episodes of Stargate: Atlantis Season 3. Go geekiness! This show has a Canadian link. Most of the actors are of Canadian origin, and the main scientist - Rodney McKay - who is a complete genius and a snob... is Canadian - on the show and in real life. (Actor David Hewlett who was in the move The Cube).

In one episode in season 3 he goes back to earth to meet his Canadian sister and they show his sister's husband... and what do i see... the husband is wearing a Jason Collette t-shirt. woot woot !!!

uhm yeh my 2 seconds of excitement