mostly martha

mostly martha made in 2001 is the original version of no reservations starring catherine zeta-jones & aaron eckhart. while i absolutely adore aaron eckhart, i don't think i will watch no reservations after having seen mostly martha.

i love foreign films. if there's a foreign version of an american film, i'd rather see the foreign version. i don't see a whole lot of german films but after watching this one, i think i'd like to see more. i thought this movie was really charming. it was happy, sad, romantic and funny. all good emotions to feel in a movie. if you want to see no reservations, you should skip it and see this one.

stella im hultberg

last friday, i went to an art opening of mrs. im hultberg's first solo show in san francisco with my cousin nina (thanks nina!). i really do enjoy art in most forms. especially music, as you can tell.

i've been admiring mrs. im hultberg's work for some time now. i discovered her work on the talented karen cheng's blog from perth, australia. she was in sf last year for a show but these shows seem to open on a friday which is when family dinners are at my parents' house.

back to the artwork... she depicts who i assume are asian women, in a very ethereal way. most of her work has a sense of flowing in them. on the one hand, the women are usually very ideal looking with the pouty lips, large eyes, high cheek bones, petite body frames and beautiful long black hair. as you can see, hair is one of the flowing elements. i purchased "lovely day" on the left. it's a gorgeous piece of work. she also paints on tea stained paper. brilliant, really.

this one on the right is one of my favorites. the expression is a combination of relief and/or anguish. and very sultry. the background colors of the purple and pink blend beautifully with the mauve in the leaves in the subject's flowing hair. it's sooo dreamy. which is probably why it sold out many shows ago. it was this piece that made me want to go see her work in person.

april/may shoes

okay, okay. they are not brown. and yea, yea, i know i'm not supposed to buy shoes until april, er, i mean june. clearly, every other month isn't working for me. so i'm changing it to every 6 weeks. which means, i get a new pair in may/june. they are sexy, oui ou non?

adding baking to the mix

most of my readers know (all 5 of you) that i do some baking from time to time. actually, i bake once a week. anyway, my sister suggested that i start taking pictures of the baked goods and post them. so, these delightful strawberry cupcakes (thanks to kelly for the recipe!) are the first to display. they are a really pretty pink color. not sure that my camera phone does it justice. click on the image for a closer look. what do you think? do they look good?

i ♥ ♥ jens lekman pt.2

venue: bottom of the hill (sold out!)
artist: jens lekman (soloact) & a horrendous opening act
who: ro
when: 23 mar 2008 (easter sunday)

yep, ro & i saw jens lekman two nights in a row. the two nights were different. the bimbo's show was bigger with a full band. and last night's show was him, his guitar and tammy from the band. oh yeah, the easter bunny came to last night's show too.

the opening act was called something-claro (with a rolling rrrrr). as soon as he started singing, he lost me. i was answering work emails (thank goodness for my phone). it was the longest set ever. and one of the worst openings i'd had to endure in a long time. his songs were repetitive. and the worst part was that he couldn't shut the fuck up inbetween his songs. ugh. if he didn't talk between his songs, it would have felt like one long boring song. thinking about that guy gives me a headache.

during the opening act, EVERYONE was talking and no one was listening. when jens lekman came on, it was completely silent. you could hear the bar serving drinks. and again, he was better than perfect. the sound there is pretty awesome too. the only negative thing for me, personally, is that i couldn't really see. but that's sort of the case at most venues. especially the small venues. that is, if i'm not sitting at the bar or something. the bottom of the hill is a much smaller venue compared to bimbo's. the song list was slightly different. and songs were played differently as well. he transition into songs without a beat and seamlessly. he can really bellow out those notes. he's amazing. it's hard to believe he wrote black cab when he was 18.

during the encore, he sang se a vida é (that's the way life is) by the pet shop boys from their bilingual album. jens's version was slow and beautiful. this show was really very special.
after the show, he had this sort of meet & greet thing. after the last two shows at bimbo's, he says he will come down and dance with the audience. we never stayed for those. and i rarely make the effor to meet musicians unless they are at their merch table. jens was different. i actually wanted to wait around with the rest of the crowd to meet him and get a picture. we waited a bit and followed the crowd to the smoking area outside. he was singing with his guitar. after which, i squeezed my way to the front to get a closer look and the chance to tell him how much i ♥'d him. he is so much cuter up close. he's tall, skinny, young and cute. and has the coolest white shoes. he's also as funny and down to earth in person as he is on stage. i was so nervous and as a result, was a total retard. i kinda froze. told him how much i enjoyed all three shows and glad he did this afterwards because i could barely see him from where i was. and then, he hugged me! i don't think i've ever hugged a rock star before. well, maybe we hugged the caesars but that was after hanging out with them all night long. anyway, i think i'm still feeling shiny & happy from last night.

rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
i would have seen him a third night if he played another show in the area, alas, he is in portland tonight...

i ♥ jens lekman pt.1

venue: bimbo's (sold out!)
artist: jens lekman & the honeydrips
who: ro
when: 22 mar 2008 (saturday)

before the jens lekman show, we went up early to get some dinner. lou (thanks lou!) recommended rogue to us. he said to get the kobe burger and a hazelnut beer. he's been into hazelnut flavors lately. i personally love hazelnut anything so i'm not complaining. ro & i order the exact same thing. a kobe burger with their white cheddar and a hazelnut beer. the burger was soooo good. and for some reason, ro got twice as much french fries as i did. the hazelnet beer was also quite delicious. we could only eat half of it but wow, it definitely hit the spot. we were happily satisfied and ready for jens.

we got there around 9:15ish. which just so happened to be the end of the honeydrips set. i think we were there for 1 and a half songs. we concluded that he played for like 20 minutes. weird.

the show was sold out. his show back in november was pretty packed and surprisingly not sold out. this show was everything i remembered except better because i knew most of the songs. he also sang a new one about google maps. and the nina story, i don't think i'll ever get sick of it. here is a line from the chorus: nina i can be your boyfriend, so you can stay with your girlfriend. and if you want to hear the story, you'll have to see him live. it's totally worth it. he's also very interactive with the crowd. for example, he asked people to whistle because he was missing a sax player on one song. and there was the pocket full of money song where the crowd sings part of the chorus. it was so much fun.

i think he sounds better live than his recordings which is already flawless. he sings every word perfectly that it makes you listen to his lyrics more carefully. he's totally brilliant. it's so hard to describe how good and wonderful he is. just thinking about him and his music makes me all warm & fuzzy inside...

rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

i am legend

last night, i watched i am legend starring will smith. the only thing i knew about it was that it was based in new york and there was some sort of zombie invasion. when i was in new york with bernie, we saw cloverfield also based in new york. after the movie, bernie's roommate pascal said he was sick of seeing movies where new york is the target of vast destruction. i guess they both had seen i am legend. and i remember thinking, everything bad happens here. or los angeles. what's interesting is that the movie is based on richard matheson's 1954 novel originally set in LA, not NY.

anyway, i'm probably the biggest chicken shit when it comes to horror films. and this movie was no different from the others. as a matter of fact, it was one of the scariest films i've seen in a while. needless to say, it scared me shitless. there were parts i couldn't bare to watch. i actually had to talk through the scary parts to keep myself distracted. and i stayed up reading to keep my mind off of the movie.

i know, that's why i call myself a chicken shit.

learning cantonese, again

when i was in elementary school, my parents put me and my sister in chinese school. it was convenient because chinese school was at vinci park, which was also where i attended elementary school. i was even in the same class. essentially, i went to the same school 6 days a week. yuk. initially, we were put in school to learn mandarin but after a few weeks, we were taken out and put in a different school for cantonese. we lost our saturdays for five years, on and off. until we were finally expelled for not attending the bible story portion of the lesson.

the best time to learn a new language is as a child. i see my niece and nephew absorb languages like sponges. english, vietnamese, some cantonese and whatever spanish dora and diego teaches them. but if you don't keep it up, it goes in one ear and out the other. when i was in chinese school, my parents didn't reinforce it at home. and so, the skill of craming was developed. i only ever studied cantonese the day before a test. some things stuck with us but most of it was lost. and all those saturdays of youth dissipated.

after high school, i wanted to be able to communicate with my paternal grandfather (the only grandfather i knew). it pained me that i couldn't understand him. at that point, both my vietnamese & chinese were obsolete. those were the only languages he spoke. i decided, i'd learn cantonese to communicate with him. but it was harder than i thought. i was relearning both french and cantonese at the same time. and spending time with your grandfather in san francisco is not conducive with being a young adult. i only ever saw him with my family. and those visits became fewer and fewer the older we got.

you might ask, why cantonese? why not mandarin? true, mandarin is more widely used and easier to learn. but i found that many cantonese speakers pick up mandarin much easier than the reverse. in any case, i know more cantonese than mandarin at this point. why not just keep going with it, right?

in my previous education of cantonese, i learned writing, reading and speaking. while i enjoyed the writing part, i think it best to concentrate on speaking. so i purchased some cds in which my sister and i plan to learn how to speak cantonese together. we'll practice together and it's very exciting!

the rosebuds

after their show last friday, i've been listening to their stuff nonstop. his voice reminds me of someone i can't quite place. it's familiar and euphoric at the same time. makes me think of my younger days... so long ago. ugh.

i've also discovered their blog here. kelly crisp posts the blog entries and she's hilarious. she's clever, funny, and cool. and i think i might have a girl crush...

dark brown (non-suede) boots... at last!

they were on my new year's resolutions for 2007 and would have been on this year's had i posted a list. actually, i don't know how long they've been on my list.

my sister has two pairs of j.crew brown boots and absolutely loves them. i've loved them too. everytime she wore them, i admired them with a veil of jealousy. i think she noticed. but no more!

until recently, j.crew did not offer shoes in my size. it's funny because my size is actually in the special sizes section. as soon as these went on sale, i jumped on the opportunity to get my dark brown boots. i ordered these in january but they were on back order until march. lucky for me because that was a reason to purchase the last pair. yay!

our tubby bubby

my nephew is nearly a year old (in june) and has gotten so big! he's crawling now and has at least 3 teeth. he's a smiley baby and doesn't quite talk yet. he's also got all sorts of rolls all over. what a cutie!

noise pop pt.2

venue: mezzanine
artist: the rosebuds (noise pop)
who: ro & lou
when: 29 february 2008 (friday)

yes, this makes two shows in two nights. despite being a bit under the weather (ok, more than a bit), i couldn't miss the rosebuds. i'm really happy that i didn't miss them this time. they were awesome. the rosebuds are a duo from raleigh, nc. a husband & wife which is always kinda sweet. this couple separately have style and sex appeal, not to mention talent. she's gorgeous and he's mysterious. they both sing, however, i particularly enjoy ivan's voice. it's a perfect blend of rock, folk and pop. it was really a fantastic show.
this was the third time i'd been to the mezzanine. previously, i hated it. it was crowded and there's really no place for sitting. the set up is more like a club venue than for shows. plus, there's this big pillar in the middle of the club which is in the way of a very small stage. it's hard to imagine that all five members of hot chip rocked out on stage together with their instruments. this time, i didn't mind so much. plus, it wasn't nearly as crowded which was also very nice.

rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥