Sleepless

I didn't plan on going back to da Bing before flying, but I did. I guess, I just couldn't say goodbye to J too soon. I haven't left and I know I am gonna freaking miss him already. After we got back from his parents', he soon fell asleep. Cleaning and getting organized were my excuse, I just couldn't fall asleep. It feels like I can't waste time sleeping. Instead, I must stare at him till the moment I can't anymore. K, time to get my clothes from the drier!

Thanksgiving, it's the time of the year to get stuffed! It originally had nothing to do with me since I am from a country which doesn't have alien invasion.(Yes, south park!) I am now sitting in a starbucks waiting for my ride going for a feast tomorrow in NJ. Before I left PP's apt in Manhattan, Ana, a Spanish woman who stayed with PP, told me that she doesn't have any dinner plan tomorrow night.(Thanksgiving night) I actually asked her if she would be interested in coming to NJ for dinner tomorrow night.(I didn't know why I just felt like asking without even asking the owner of the dinner party...) Ana said, it's ok, we don't celebrate that in Spain. She may be the first one I've known in the States who doesn't have any dinner plan with friends tomorrow night. How dare I feel bad for her at all?

Anyways, after a few seconds, I knocked on her door and told her about Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. She looked very interested. I walked her through the website and info, and then, I forwarded her the website. I've never seen the parade for all these years I've been in NYC. I almost felt like, FTS, I am coming with you, Ana. I'm sure she'll be fine and maybe will have more fun than I do... :p

Last thanksgiving, I spent it with NS and PP. It was very intimate, warm and full! The roulade was amazing. I can't believe that I actually remember the name of it. Well, I overheard PP shouting the desire of ROULADE on the phone. So, time to give thanks. Thanks to everyone who has shared their life with me whether it has been fun or not. :p

My gypsy life style still has not changed much!

29

Another year closer to 30! I thought it may be a good idea to review my 28. When I turned 28, no body really knew. I just got a bike accident. My very few auditions didn't bring me anything exciting as usual. I spent Thanksgiving with P and N. It was very intimate and wonderful. There were many concerts after because of the one year long contract. I started as Ernesto from Billy Goats Gruff. By the end of June 2011, I had done not only Ernesto, but Lucy and Dandini.(All the goats, check!) I had my moments performing Flora. That was indeed, good time. I met Jared and did my first time skiing on Feb 19. We became inseparable. Soon, we had trips to Virginia and New Jersey to visit his family. BU told me that they were interested in hiring me. April was the time for my triumph as Giulietta from the Tales of Hoffmann. Jared's mom and dad came up from New Jersey to see my performances. My paintings were shown in TriCities Opera for a while. We finished the season and I successfully invited myself to move in with Jared. I got a contract to compose for children's audio book. My voice teacher in Taiwan confirmed to hire me to sing Judith from Duke Bluebeard's Castle in MANDARIN! P and N told me about their interest in putting together an opera in Calhoun in the fall. Jared and I went to Jasper, Lake Louise, and Banff before my production in Edmonton. During the trip, I was face to face to a few black bears, an elk, many chipmunks, squirrels, a porcupine, sheep, and marmots. After the National Park, I turned into Suzuki from Madama Butterfly and had a wonderful time with Manami, Jeffrey, Roland, Stephen, Regina, Meeker family, little boys, boys' parents, Faith, Sylvia and etc. New York City survived Irene, and I safely arrived home. A day later, I went to my first day in the University. The lack of knowledge to my kind of VISA immediately put my position on hold. In Sept, P, N and I put together L'occasione fa il ladro and I conducted the production(with an orchestra) in Calhoun. A day later, I had two more concerts(One as the pianist. The other one was my recital singing and playing at the same time). The record of having three completely different programs back to back had been done. More concerts, recording sessions and students came through. After a house concert, I made friends with more wonderful and talented people from Taiwan. J's sister announced her news and we all spent time together in New Jersey with more relatives. Because of my random appearance in the assisted living, I got a few more supporters and I also made an old lady a real celebrity. Finally, the fund came in and I could really start my children audio book project. However, it was only the first payment... I bought the first Lego set, earth defense, in my life.(Of course, my parents got me sets before. This is the first of mine purchased on my own) Our Halloween party happened and that was the first time I saw Jared drunk!!! While visiting my friends from Taiwan, I found Kusmi and got so many different kinds of tea right away. (Pictures below are the links for more detail on Amazon.com)
   

Birthday, well, two of my top wishes do not come true. I had many awesome pieces of Pumpkin pie made by Sean. Manami made kick-ass dinners. Victoria and I had so much fun time in Manhattan. I got a little gift from J's parents. J bought me dinner in Red House and hoped to keep my mouth shut...

So, here I am. 29, and I am still struggling as the rest of my 28 years with laugh and tears... And by the way, I haven't got any tablet yet...

Inspired by Bonamassa

Just got back from a concert of Bonamassa's at State Theatre of Ithaca. It was a rock/pop concert and I was so inspired by his brilliance in his guitar playing, voice and the collaboration with other musicians. Bonamassa is from Utica New York. He started his career there and continued in Europe for more than a decade. He finally returned to Ithaca today and rocked the stage with standing ovation.

Before I went to the concert, I checked him out online. His amazing guitar playing was recognized when he was playing Led Zeppelin's exciting and precise solo parts. I was so thrilled to hear it live by the end of the concert. Mr. Bonamassa's gift is not only about his guitar playing, singing but also about his interaction with the band members and the audience. He definitely had the crowd gone absolutely wild tonight. I was extra amused when there was a duel scene going between Joe and Tal. Phrases after and Joe reached an unstoppable climax, Tal replied with a few gentle rubs on the cymbals. It looked so comical, and my also unstoppable laugh turned into a scream. I appreciated the sense of humor deeply.


His sense of humor also came out when he said, "this song almost became a hit!" His composition reminded me of operas a lot, simple words and meaningful ornaments. You get to hear true feelings from his voice from the guitar and vocal chords. The control he has with his guitar is just extraordinary. The incredible scale of volume, velocity, speed and sudden silence drove the musical event into a breathe taking drama. The beauty of his composition showed the most to me is from the third to the last song in the concert.(the original ending song) I heard a hit right there. All we need is a movie to go with it!


The sound system in the concert wasn't really to my liking. It felt like everything was all the way up except the keyboard for the whole time. It was so loud that I couldn't hear the crowd cheering and screaming right next to me when the musicians were playing. It was exactly like in an opera, when Joe was singing on the middle and lower registrar, the volume of the rest needed to be lower. When the registrars were far away from each other, people would be able to hear every instrument. Because of the reason, I loved Joe's quieter songs more in general because I could actually hear what he was singing.

Again, "less is more". For me, a lot of time, it's the pianissimo which gets me instead of the fortissimo. It was also the reason I laughed so hard when Tal rubbed the cymbals during the duel.

One other observation from the concert might be just my imagination. I saw a weird dynamic between Joe and Rick(the keyboard player). First, the set up of the stage made Rick stand alone on the left. And throughout the concert, Joe interacted with Tal and Carmine very often but I never saw Joe interacting with Rick. The only time I saw Joe walking toward to Rick and kind of gesturing something was after a sudden cut-off in which Rick's sound was was still hanging there alone. It made me feel that the reason Joe walked to Rick at that moment was to tell him to watch out. Other than that, there was a moment, when Joe was singing a bunch of high and expressive ornaments, Rick all of a sudden turned around and took the attention away from Joe(At least, Rick got my attention when he did that). In the operas, we are trained that no one should do any big movements to steal other's marvelous moment. By putting all these together with my crazy imagination, I suspect some interesting story between these two.

Another unbelievable achievement was that Mr. Bonamassa didn't have an intermission during the entire show(for more than two hours).  We all witnessed him singing/playing on stage for the whole time. There was not a single second of "checking out". The intensity got everyone in the space glued together from the beginning to the end. Bravo, Joe, for your incredible stamina.

After all the words, I have to say that I never thought I could be so blown away by Rock/Pop music. Mr. Bonamassa definitely gained my highest respect and appreciation. I will keep my eye on him and look forward to his performances in the future. I have to thank many friends for getting us there. It was an unforgettable night and I was honored to be part of it.

The very sad capitalistic world...

I spent so much time thinking about getting an iPad since iPad 1 was out. Tablets have developed for a while. Since iPad, more and more advanced gadgets came through. My meaning of getting a new gadget is to take me away from the world of ridiculous charge by cellphone companies/providers. (Click on the photos below will take you to more detail on Amazon.com)

Since google voice provides free calls/texts in the US and Canada, it's actually possible. With my iPhone, I managed to receive, send, and call on my Google voice number with WIFI. Since it's a Google number, and iPhone has an app working for it. It's natural for anyone to assume that an Android(developed by Google) would definitely have an app working with Google number. However, after spending time searching a free app(Talkatone on iPhone is free.) on an Android Xoom, the answer is no! I couldn't find any free app guaranteed working with Google number. Re-phrase, there are apps working with Google number, but only with one or two functions. The ones which are able to receive cannot send. And the ones you can make a call needs the receiver with the same apps. The best part is that all the apps charge the customers. It was a huge turn off after considering Xoom for good.

iPad has been more stable and reliable of all. However, the fact that I have to sync the Pad with iTunes all the time makes me sick of it. I never appreciate how Apple tries to dominate the market by producing products only working with Apple.

I also thought about Chromebooks. However, there is no actual Chromebook in the market before I make an order. It's hard to imagine how exactly Chromebooks work. There are apps for Chromebooks and I don't seem to find enough apps fascinating me yet. By looking at the price, it seems to be higher than the usual Netbook. Netbook 3G should be top on my list considering how little I need from a mobile gadget. Netbooks are still cheaper but there aren't enough popular developers yet to make me feel more comfortable of purchasing one.

Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile have their own data plans. AT&T wants to sound cheaper by providing different amount of data plans from Verizon. T-Mobile's website is a hot mess. I don't seem to find the info I want to know in general. I didn't have time observing Sprint. On top of this broadband monthly plan or yearly contract, I discovered more disgusting facts. First, a 2 year wireless contract with a netbook is more expensive than monthly data plan with no contract.(T-Mobile) The fee for the same data plan changes for different gadgets.

I was an AT&T customer but constantly thinking about switching or just simply terminating my number. When I followed up the step of getting a Xoom, I realized that I could transfer my cellphone number to a Verizon iPad. When I was in AT&T, they told me that I can't have the same number. In order to make it happen, I have to first terminate my AT&T number. Three months later, the number will go back to the free market, and I can only hope to get the same number for my new device. I found this very upsetting.

There is another interesting thing I found. With Kindle, one can get free unlimited 3G network. But again, the 3G model doesn't have colors, and Kindle doesn't have their apps listed clear enough for me to browse.(The website mess must be a typical Amazon thing. I will get into that one day.) Should we all pray for Kindles' great success and ambition. Hopefully, one day, they will end the BS of paying so much for 3G, period!

We think about getting a good deal of something. The truth is that after you add the sum up, I mean, contract of data plan, the gadget, and etc. There isn't much difference in 2 years. The only one thing I am certain right now is to terminate my AT&T number no matter what. Call me old fashion, I actually enjoyed my life without a cellphone much more. And relax, I still have a cellphone number, thanks to Google. It's just that I am only able to access it with WIFI around.

I am looking at a free-WIFI-everywhere world. When will it happen, please?