Wong's King/Martin Yan extravaganza

Last night was the big event. I am going to have a hard time describing the entirety of the spectacle, so I won't. Let it be known that I had a blast.

The evening started with the room slowly filling with guests. A deluge of wine and beer sprung from the hands of the teeming waitstaff, drowning frowns and warming the crinkled, grinning brows of my table-mates. Table 84. Probably the second worst table in the house, pushed far back into the corner, the underpowered P.A. system straining to reach it; the waitstaff's buzzing workstation close enough to drown the words determined enough to make it back to us. Ah well, the company was good. Jesse and Katelyn at my side, a few happy, older russian folk adjacent, a good friend of the Wong family to my right, and a couple of Japanese Americans beyond him. Everyone was curious and eager. Often if someone had a query, another had an answer, "what is this?" "It's slices of stuffed lotus root." "Oh, I thought it was Mortadella! hahaha!"



I spent some effort fighting off the eager waiter, Ricki, from pouring me more wine, bringing me more beer. He eventually conceded, moved on to Katelyn, and upped his game. Glass after glass, healthy in volume, conjured in front of her. Merriment ensued. Jesse and I did not escape the influence of Bacchus unscathed either, our cheeks pinked by the tasty Yanjing Beer


Lions danced through the too-crowded room, the confinement allowing only basic techniques and acrobatics, which is a shame.

Martin Yan, up on a stage, behind a large work surface, hushed the crowed by clattering off a staccato proto-beat on an overturned wok with his Chinese cleaver. This went on for a bit. And then it continued for a moment longer. Finally he finished his clanky song and launched into his polished oration, a showman through and through. Our table caught every fourth word. But the message was clear: Buy my books! Buy my Yan Can Cook™ branded Chinese cleaver! Give me your money!

This briefly upset me.

But then I realized that he is here not out of the kindness of his heart, but because he is a working man and this is his job. I stopped caring and enjoyed the infomercial. I really enjoyed it because it was more or less entirely a demo on knife skills. He peeled tomatoes, turning the long, thin ribbon into a rose. He relaxed a chicken by making it do the jitterbug, then rendered it into it's component parts in eighteen seconds(!). He made fans, and blossoms, and ribbons, and waves, and curls out of various mundane veggies. He flipped paper thin slices of meat through the air, smacking them down to the cutting board in one swift move. He flirted with elderly ladies, and awarded prizes to audience members for knowing obscure chinese vegetables. The man is charming and charismatic.



Then the food came. Nine courses, streaming out out of the kitchen to feed hundreds of guests. What a feast.

Note: I don't have the menu list in front of me right now, I will fill in the names of these dishes and their ingredients later










The room was raucous and boozy. Nearly every table swaying with it's drunken diners, lilting and crying out in glee. What a night. I am jealous of my past self, for though the memories are grand, the tastes are now only ghosts teasing the back of my tongue.



Song of the Day: Diggin' a Watery Grave, Morcheeba

Katelyn is trashed

'nough said. We are at wong's king with unlimited wine.

More later. Probably tomorrow.


Song of the Day: Why Hip Hop Sucks in '96, DJ Shadow

A few things

HELL YEAH MOTHER EFFERS!!!

So as I mentioned before, Sean and I are trading some bass lessons for some Tai Chi sword lessons. Today after my kung fu class he invited me in to grab the bass he will be lending me to start out. It's a wee mini bitty baby bass that fits me perfectly. Also he is lending me the pignose amp that (I believe) he used to lug around on his back during the early days of Afroknot. We have yet to trade either lessons, but I am very excited to begin both.

Tomorrow is the very special Martin Yan cooking show filming and feast at Wong's King Seafood Restaurant. Despite this, I went tonight for dinner as well, as per my tradition of going every week after my kung fu class. We had the Multi-Flavor Lamb Hotpot with added noodles. To die for. And hey! Guess who else was there?!

That Patterson/Gimlin-esque figure in black looking over his shoulder is none other than the man himself, Martin Yan. GLEEE!

For years now I have been hearing about The Watchmen graphic novel and have never gotten around to reading it. With the movie about to come out there is pretty much absolutely no way to get it from the library, and I don't want to buy it outright. Lucky for me Jesse owns it and handed it off to me tonight. I am excited to launch into it.

Cheers!

Song of the Day: So far to go, J-dilla

How to Speak Hip

Hey, what's happening baby?
This is where it's at, ya' dig? These cats are layin' it down real jive and learning the masses, dig? If you ain't groovin' with the chicks and the cats and having a scene, you probably aren't talking hip, man. This record is a gas, I get hung up on it every time I dig it. Flip this:
How to Speak Hip
This record was put together by comedian Del Close and actor John Brent in 1959. Close was a hugely important cat in the development of improvisational comedy. Check out this list of his students. Damn.

I recommend that you take the time to listen to the whole thing, ya' dig?

I'm gonna get in the wind and shake it.


Song of the Day: Restless, Clifford Gilberto

Song of the Day

Look at the time stamp at the bottom of this post. 12:00 am, February 24th, 2009. I raced to get this out on Monday's date. Damn, Oh well.

Anyway,

I am going to institute a new feature on my blog. The Song of the Day! It will come as a small link at the bottom of my (almost) daily post. The utility of this will be many fold:

° I believe that music has the ability to express many emotions and ideas that my written words cannot. Anger, joy, sorrow, love, lust, etc. The danger of this of course is that some songs, or even genres of music, will have wildly differing connotations between two people. For example, Marvin Gaye's Third World Girl has, strangely, some pretty heavy emotional meaning for me. You doubtlessly have very different feelings about it. Sorry for any confusion at my future song choice.

° I will inherently be sharing with you the music that I love. This will serve the same purpose as my music you should know and might not be aware of posts, without the whole post being taken up by it. And fortunately, If you do not like my taste in music, you don't have to read about it or click the link if you do not want to.

° That being said, If I find myself nearing the end of the day with nothing to write about, I can at least pick a song of the day and post it. This should (hopefully) eliminate days without posts.

I will post the songs as links to youtube videos of the songs. I am not an internet guru and do not know how to create direct feeds. This hopefully will work for the most part.

Here goes:

Song of the day: Beautiful Drug, Thievery Corporation.

Random bits

I have no idea what to write about so I will just sort of list off some stuff that is current in my life. here goes:

° My grant, as I mentioned yesterday, was denied, as was everyone else's in the printmaking group. I am still not sure what this means for the trip. I really want to go and think that I can make ends meet. I will have to talk to the others.

° I think that I may be moving out of my apartment, like, immediately. This is a bummer, but I can no longer afford to stay here. The management company is thinking about raising rent, and with this grant debacle I am pretty strapped for cash. I have started looking for a new place. ugh.

° I am still enjoying the heck out of my new longboard. I am glad that it is so awesome because it was a chunk of change that I should not have dropped at this time. DAMN YOU PSU FOR NOT ACCEPTING MY GRANT PROPOSAL! can you tell I'm a little bitter?

° The Wong's King/Martin Yan event is coming up this Thursday. This should be the best thing to ever happen I am pretty sure. I will, of course, post a big blog post about this when it happens. Very exciting.

° I need to clean my apt.

° OOH! Blood Oranges! I am now a devout believer in the God of the Blood Orange. I bought a few last week and am slowly savoring them. These have easily been some of the most delicious oranges I have ever eaten.

° Thievery Corporation is coming to town! Sometime in April I believe… HA! I just looked it up: 4/20. Perfect. Anyway, The one time I saw them back in 2006 I was blown away. Now, Thievery Corporation is one of my most favorite musical groups, but at the time I thought it was just gonna be the two guys standing in front of their mixers, nodding their heads while fiddling with the nobs on the crossfader. Boy was I wrong! Three percussionists, two guitarists, a bass player, a guy on a freaking Sitar, and SEVEN GODDAMNED VOCALISTS! oh, and yeah, the two guys were tucked away in the back fiddling their nobs. Possibly one of the better live shows I have ever seen. Seriously. I am going. Won't you?

° I am very excited to begin taking bass lessons from Sean. I am trading him for Tai Chi Straight Sword lessons. He also has a bass and amp that I can barrow to get started. I am pumped about this. I have long wanted to play an instrument, but never got around to picking which. This just decides it for me. Which is great. And besides, when you're prospective teacher and good pal is a freaking WIZARD(!), you might as well give it a go.

That's all for now.

-Peace

despair

My grant was denied. This is bad. I am not sure wether or not I can go to Chicago now. If others in my group have been denied as well that means that I probably cannot because we are all in the lodging cost together. I hope that I can make this work.

New Longboard

So about a month ago Tyler got me a sweet deal on a longboard deck that I have been ogling for years. I have been staring at it longingly since then because it had no trucks and wheels. Today I took a trip out to Daddies Board Shop and bought the components. Very exciting (for me).

It's a Dragonfly deck by Insect Skateboards. Check it!

I don't think anyone who reads this blog skates, so sorry for the topic. But bear with me. This board is the cream of the eff-bombing crop. It's a bamboo/fiberglass composite with crazy amounts of flex and spring (these are good things). When I go into a turn, my weight pushes into the deck, flexing and "loading" it; coming out of the turn, it unloads the flex into my legs, allowing my to press out of the turn, maintaining a high speed. Only a few longboard companies are working with the materials and technical know-how to pull this off well. Insect is one of them.

I took it to Laurelhurst today to give it a leisurely spin. Completely amazing. Though, I feel unworthy of it. I have not been longboarding much recently and have gotten soft, I used to be a much more aggressive rider. I'm hoping this new board will force me to get back into it. I can't wait to tackle Mt. Tabor on it.

Some pics:




I got some trucks that have a very unique spring-based system called Seismic Trucks . They are the recommended truck for this deck, and I have to agree that they are pretty awesome. A very distinctive feel.

At 36" it's nearly a foot shorter than all of my other decks. I have been wanting a smaller board for a while due to their ease of transportation and lighter weight. Carrying a four foot board onto the bus can be a huge pain in the ass. The great thing about the Dragonfly is that it has all of the support and stability of a longer deck without the cumbersome scale.

This is brilliant

So last week I (somewhat accidently) went to class drunk and wrote about it. The guest speaker for that class somehow miraculously found my post. and wrote me this:

"Ps. Curators use the interweb. Can you make a copy of that drawing for me for my next presentation? Drunk or not, thank you for participating. All is well that ends well. Kristan Kennedy"

This just made my day! I am even more shamed than I was before now, but I cannot deny the awesomeness of this happening.
Here is what I wrote to her:

"Amazing. I tip my hat to you for somehow finding my post about your presentation. I am truly sorry that I disrespected both you and Brendan by showing up drunk to class. I did not at all intend to be drunk, it just ended up happening. That, and my tendency to NEVER skip class led to that experience. It was an interesting one, though one I never intend to repeat. I hope I didn't make an ass of myself.

You are absolutely more than welcome to use the image of my notes. here is the picture:

http://picasaweb.google.com/elijahpdx/DropBox?authkey=VGTfXrEB9RE&feat=embedwebsite#5302155341578578866

I apologize for the absolutely TERRIBLE portrait of you that I drew. What can I say, I was drunk. I hope there is solace in the fact that I wrote "Awesome Lady" in the arm.

I hope this finds you well,
Eli Gibson"

This is quite amusing to me. I hope she feels the same way.

Edit: And here is the reply!

Eli,

I did not need an apology- I swear. It is a right of passage to stand in front of a class and have someone draw a picture of you while scrawling notes all around. I went to catholic school for twelve years believe me there was alot of material to be mined there. I did not really think it was disrespectful. You live and learn, going drunk to class must be less fun than it seems. Someone else in your class reeked of Pot so it was a party up in that place for sure. Our PR guy at PICA forwarded the post to me because he has google alerts set up for anything related to PICA, all of our names, the institutions names our artists names... so any little bit that gets written about us he tracks. Mostly it is listings for events etc, but, sometimes we get a gem and get a kick out of something or other. I also liked the drawing. It is causing a ruckus on my facebook page as we speak.

Keep well and good luck with your work and your noodles.

Kristan

Sweet.

What a day

If this day were a tree it would be a really awesome tree that is really awesome. That is to say, I had an awesome day. Let me count the ways.

I got up early. Well, early for me, I've been sleeping in as of late. I arose and practiced some Tai Chi, showered, and left my apartment. I went to my favorite breakfast joint, Pine State Biscuits, and met my newest best friend (I have several) Corin for biscuits and shiitake mushroom gravy. Also, they make the best chocolate milk in Portland. srsly. We talked about neat and fun things and then walked about a bit.

I then went to my old JMP friends' place to teach some Tai Chi. Aaron and Ida have nearly 80 acres(!) (not really) of garden space at their place. I am not hesitant to call it a farm. It's that big. Anyway, I taught Aaron and his pal Henry, who is visiting from NY, the first few segments of the Beijing Form, while Ida milked the cows and fixed the tractor (not really). The sun was hot and the air was crisp, perfect for doing martial arts. When we were finished, Aaron, the awesome dude that he is, took me out to the fields (not really) and harvested a bunch of veggies for me. I got two types of kale, a cabbage, a platoon of carrots, some leaks, and a grip of collard greens. It's something like two pounds of produce! He also gave me a huge mason jar of cider from his friends orchard and another filled with crushed San Marzano Tomatoes, the finest sauce tomatoes in the world. Amazing. THEN! Ida made some amazing, I dunno what to call it, warm beet salad(?) I don't know what to call it but in taste it was FUCKING EPIC! Check it:

That's beets, carrots, oranges, black beans, quinoa, feta, and cilantro. And that's it. Somehow this blend of unremarkable ingredients yielded one of the most superbly satisfying bowls of food I have had in a long while. For realz yo, totes tasty.

I am humbled by Aaron and Ida's generosity. They essentially supplied me with several meals worth of food for coming and doing tai chi. amazing. But I guess this is how the neo/retro economy is going to work, trade of goods and services instead of cash and credit. Not to say this was a business transaction today, it was too fun for that.

I said farewell and took a wobbly bike ride (overloaded with produce) back to the Villa. On the way I dropped off some of the veggies at my folks' place and played with Walter. Here is a sleepy picture of my folks + Walter from the other night:


Anyway, at the Villa I chatted with Niko and Steph (Brother and his wife, for the new readers, who are also my neighbors) and spread the veggie wealth out some more. At this point I learned the bummer news of the day: My mom was laid off this morning. Her last day will be June 30th. She is currently a Juvenile Parole Officer and has been wearing many different hats for Multnomah County for over a decade. This is really stupidly bad news but I know things will be okay. If my mom is anything, she is a survivor. In a lesson in making lemonade from life's lemons, she will at least get the summer off with my dad. Soon after hearing this news, a hobo came to tell us that we woke him up from his nap in the bushes. He played us some blues harmonica, the same riff over and over and over and over and over, and I gave him a dollar to go away. It was kinda awkward. This drew out the new neighbor Alima and gave me a chance to introduce myself to her and her baby.

NEXT! I went down to PSU with a mission to ask out a girl. We'll call her Z. I have been trying to ask Z out for a few weeks now. She is a new transfer student majoring, like me, in Printmaking. I don't have any classes with her and, because of my degree requirement standing, never will. I have only seen her around the studio when I am poking around the lower division classes. From the beginning it's been all smiles and easy chatter. Enamored is probably too strong a word, smitten works better. I was smitten. First I didn't ask due to nerves, then I got over those and was bulwarked by situations beyond my control. I literally was going downtown to PSU just to try and ask her out, but if she wasn't absent from the class the class was canceled. If she wasn't chatting with a large crowd of other girls she was consulting with the professor for an hour while a shuffled around the studio pretending to do stuff, only to leave untried. TODAY! Today I went to PSU's print lab and found it eerily empty. Accept for Z. I chatted her up a little bit then lost my nerve. The iron was hot, it was laid on the anvil, and the hammer hung still in the air. I was ignoring all of my power training at the Mountain Temple of Dating, forgetting that if she said no nothing would change and life would go on.

I struck. Blushingly, Z informed me that she has a boyfriend (how could she not? total babe) and I apologized for my presumption. She told me that I am sweet and also that I am a real nice guy. I would have preferred a "yes" but this went as well as a no answer could possibly go. I made sure that we were cool, and bade her success on the Reduction Print she was working on. I am just happy that this has come to pass. I have been contemplating this for weeks and am contented with the outcome.

Tyson, it turns out, was a mere block from where this all took place. I met up with him in the park blocks and we walked to Pioneer Courthouse Square. There we saw a pimp, a man with a cat face on his chest, a magician, a homeless youth with a comically-sized salami chub, a man with a cudgel, a cute girl with a Loaded longboard deck that she got for free, aging, yet skilled, hackeysackers, and the sun sinking into the city. I taught Tyson butt stretches, he traded some tobacco and rolling papers for a lighter with a drifter, and got politely scolded by security for smoking in the Square. (Not me, Tyson. Smoking is for dummies). We said au revoir and went our separate ways; He the number 4 across the river, and I the number 12 to Jesse's place in SW PDX. No, not Uncle Jesse of Full House fame, Jesse Latimer, notorious lady-killer and Fro-llet legend.

Here we watched The Taste of Tea, a contender for my all-time favorite film list. This movie is completely wackadoo. Perhaps this is because it is hyper-Japanese. The pacing, the acting, the cinematography, the script, the set design, the score, the characters, all amazingly imbued with the essence of Japan. Simply wonderful. I am hesitant to recommend this film though. I lifetime of studying Japan's language and culture has prepared me for what this film offers. Others might not, well, get it. Jesse fared beautifully and pointed out that every character in the movie is likable and appealing, a hard feat I feel. This viewing went longer than expected and forced me to cancel my Kung Fu class. I deemed this okay since I was with Jesse, who is sick and not going to attend anyway, and katelyn texted me to tell me that she had a migraine (I hope you two are feeling better!). These two are my regulars and I did not expect anyone else. My father did me a huge favor and posted a note on the door of the Kwoon just in case someone did show up.

I got home and made a vegetable medley using some of Aaron's harvest. Delicious! and that's where you find me, content and full, writing this blog.

I hope that you can have a day like this soon too.

Here are some pictures from the past few days:

DOGGUM, LOOKER THAT THERE!

This dog is the best ever:

Update of Crusty Bike People Battle

So Tyson posted dome pictures and a video. I can't seem to embed it here so I will post the link:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=559829784720

You may have to have a facebook account to view it, which is lame.

Knife Techniques

So I took some terrible pics/video to talk a little bit about very basic knife skills. I present the fundamental Pinch/Claw hand positions. These positions enable fast and accurate cutting without the need for bandages.

The Pinch Grip:
With the pinch grip you are moving your hand up the handle and actually holding the body of the blade with the thumb and index finger. This puts your grip right above the knifes balance point making for ease of use.

How you held your knife today:


How you will now hold your knife for the rest of your life:




The Claw:
The claw is the most important part of this equation. The Claw's purpose is double: To remove your fingers from danger and to give the blade a guide. What you are doing is curling your fingers back and resting the side of the knife against your knuckles.


Here, watch this video:

Ugh, that was terrible. The single crappiest video I have ever made, not to mention I am displaying some TERRIBLE knife skills. I really am better than that. I don't know what happened.

Crusty bike people battle for victory

Today I called Tyson and asked what the dilly was. The dilly was that there was going to be a large bike event in which people raced their home fabricated bicycle-chariots. This sounded fun. I met up with Tyson at the rally point, a house off of 28th and Hawthorne where lunch was being served and bikes were piled high. We hung out there and scoped bikes while the event got its shit together.


This thing (I called it the TechnoDrome) was awesome, two people side by side racing in a battle cage.




We then all biked to Laurelhurst Park in a huge snaking line stretching blocks and mobbed it.



Then the Fuzz showed up

We just ignored them and went ahead with what we were doing.

WHICH WAS RACE! The track was the path that wraps around the pond in the center of Laurelhurst.

The beginning of the race:


Yes, you are seeing four unicyclists pulling a chariot. Awesome.

This is the only shot of the end of the first heat that I have. Somewhere along the way this homeless man joined in. He came in third! After the race he smoked some pot out of a carrot.


Some more shots of the action






I got really cold and when they were done with the races I went home. They moved on to another location and battled it out in a demolition derby style, last man standing, smash up. I'll have to hear from Tyson how that went.