Friday 27th July 2007
It was Julie's 21st birthday dinner. She is also an intern at the same company. An Indo-Singapore girl, a pleasant and sweet character. She did her restaurant research and brought 5 of her friends to a Thai place near Union Square. The interior design is very Anna Sui-like. Purple wallpapers and doors, crystal chandelier and a space like atmosphere. The food is sort of "French cuisine" prepared, paying details to beautifying the plate. The Espresso Duck was my favourite dish. The duck was tender and dripped with rich dark coffee sauce.
We also opened a bottle. The 1st time my friends and I opened a bottle was at an Indian bar in Clarke Quay (Singapore), was a Jack Daniel's. But it is only over here that the people I've encountered open bottles at dinner. Also, many friends I've met here love alcohol very much. So drinking has become a common norm in this period. Reminds me of the days in Tokyo,living a very decadent lifestyle. :)
Head home early, because I had an appointment with myself and the Cooper Hewitt-National Design Museum.
Saturday 28th July 2007
Got up early, did my 30 minutes jog and head out to the museum.
My main goal was to visit the Design Life Now: Emerging Ideas from 21st Century designers in fields including animation, new media, architecture, graphic, interior, fashion, furniture and technology. I would consider this the best museum experience I ever had. The exhibits are modern, innovative and inspiring. Also, I had one of those moments that I'm grateful to be in the art world industry. :) Very creative intriguing learning experience. An exhibition that I'll consider getting the catalog.
Head to Soho to meet Julie for shopping therapy after. Soho is an all-crowd thing everywhere on weekends. I can't do the therapy. But I love seeing the crowd enjoying their weekend and I am part of them, very stress-free.
I brought her to The Market NYC. A school-gym-but-weekend-turn-to-shopping-haven place. It is similar to a flea market, but the booths sellers are independent young designers selling their crafts. Comprises of accessories and clothes. I LOVE IT~ i love supporting younger designers and of course innovation and talent can be felt everywhere. I got a crochet choker that I simply have to have very very much.
I need to learn how to crochet one day. :P
Do you agree that shopping is one of the best exercise? It does burn lots of calories after all the walking and bags carrying. :) Had Soba for dinner at a "Chinese Revolutionary" interior design noodle bar in Greenwich Village. I remembered going to an expensive Sushi bar in San Francisco (my previous boss's treat) and the interior was furnished with a variety of sake bottles, very modern and sleek. Whereas for this noodle bar, they used the same concept, but instead of alcohol bottles, they used soy sauce and chilli sauce bottles. It certainly added a twist.
Wanted to try the famous Magnolia Cupcake, but the line was going around the corner. So, no cupcakes for desert. :P
Sunday 29th July 2007
Through someone's tutorial http://www.metacafe.com/watch/740736/watch_latest_streaming_movies_tv_over_the_internet/
and hungry for some movies, I watched Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock. A documentary featuring him trying to prove that eating fast food(mainly Macdonald's) is not good for one's health.(duh!) I hardly eat fast food, I know the harmful effects. However, occasionally, if the desperation/urge to settle my tummy, I'll go for a fish or chicken burger. But after the movie, it dawned me that fast food is a NO-NO! Coke/Sugar Drinks are a NO-NO! Fried food absolutely NO! Eating fast food will lead to multiple health problems, the heart, the liver, the fats floating, depression, most importantly lowers the sex drive.
After the movie, I explored the website www.goveg.com A vegan website with many information to become one and the cruel methods of killing animals video. There are also interesting vegetarian receipts if you don't know how to start. I made a vegetarian wrap last night (with salmon though)!! It is amazingly full and not that stuffed. Gosh, I think my culinary skills are getting better compared to the 1st meal I made in Iowa City. (I cooked instant noodles and it wasn't quite edible, and had to discard it :P )
soy nuts!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Stop Motion Art
Quoc, my animation friend from school/online recommended a stop motion animated film - Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride. I've always like this genre of animation but didn't know it was called stop motion. The School of Visual Arts (animation department) tour last week - college shopping for my baby sister - opened my eyes to the wonders of this form of art. Since it was a rainy/gloomy monday, I borrowed the film, brought my Dell and went to a randomly searched (on www.yelp.com) bookstore con cafe place to watch it.
Before I dive into the film...............
I bought a cup of ginger ale and a slice of raspberry crumbler bar. Happily, I brought it to the table and another lady came up and we shared the same table. I offered to plug in her Mac's battery power plug, since the outlet was at my side, and as I straighten my clumsy self, my elbow hit my full brim ginger ale and spilled all over the floor. :( *well, nothing unusual about that. She felt bad and bought me another cup. I don't know if she is from here, but I guess my human interaction experience in New York has been a bless so far. :)
Back to the film, since I borrowed the DVD, there were many special features to explore. I really got to understand how stop motion animation are directed. It is such a tedious process of making 200 over puppets, filming each movement or frame one at a time. Imagine, moving the puppets, capturing the shot, shift the puppet, and get the shot again, and doing it 1 step at a time. Such a painstaking routine. It is really a pity that CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) has taken over
most animation, resulting in stop motion a dying art.
I also realized that being in the Art world, artists are constantly being challenged by the times and technology advancement in their generation. Facing the fast pace of lifestyle with the endless hungry demands of today's consumers, I applaud at artists who continues to be convicted to their passions and stay true to their art. I am glad that I've been given the chance to be immersed in an art education. I'm very lucky.
Almost 7pm, the raspberry bar is almost digested and ginger ale is occupying my bladder. hehehe Maybe I'll get a falafel somewhere in the East Village before heading home.
Before I dive into the film...............
I bought a cup of ginger ale and a slice of raspberry crumbler bar. Happily, I brought it to the table and another lady came up and we shared the same table. I offered to plug in her Mac's battery power plug, since the outlet was at my side, and as I straighten my clumsy self, my elbow hit my full brim ginger ale and spilled all over the floor. :( *well, nothing unusual about that. She felt bad and bought me another cup. I don't know if she is from here, but I guess my human interaction experience in New York has been a bless so far. :)
Back to the film, since I borrowed the DVD, there were many special features to explore. I really got to understand how stop motion animation are directed. It is such a tedious process of making 200 over puppets, filming each movement or frame one at a time. Imagine, moving the puppets, capturing the shot, shift the puppet, and get the shot again, and doing it 1 step at a time. Such a painstaking routine. It is really a pity that CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) has taken over
most animation, resulting in stop motion a dying art.
I also realized that being in the Art world, artists are constantly being challenged by the times and technology advancement in their generation. Facing the fast pace of lifestyle with the endless hungry demands of today's consumers, I applaud at artists who continues to be convicted to their passions and stay true to their art. I am glad that I've been given the chance to be immersed in an art education. I'm very lucky.
Almost 7pm, the raspberry bar is almost digested and ginger ale is occupying my bladder. hehehe Maybe I'll get a falafel somewhere in the East Village before heading home.
It rained like cats n doggies this whole morning, and it dashed my plans of going to the Copper-Hewitt Design Museum in Upper East Side. There is an exhibit "Design Live Now" which ends this Sunday, so I'll definitely go there this Saturday, rain, shin or snow. :)
I kayaked on the Houston River Sunday afternoon. It was a great day to be out on the waters not too hot or windy. It was a free kayaking service by volunteers, you just have to sign a form of consent and you are on your way to a 20 minutes kayaking experience. They even have free lockers with locks to put your belongings. I enjoyed it, but not very crazy about it. Maybe water sports isn't my thing, just like how.....snowboarding isn't really fancy. But will do it again if I can. :)
Having nearly escaped from being knocked down by a car late last year, witnessing someone trapped in an elevator with sewage pipe bursting in the roof and water seeping rapidly into the lift, and 5 blocks away from the recent explosion of the steam pipe in Manhattan last week, I definitely thank the special people "up there" looking out for me. And today, with the terrible weather and stomach diarrhea , i happen to have my day off. Such great timings. :P
I'm going to borrow couple of movies later and watch to my heart's content. And i promise i'll start blogging down my amazing episodes in NYC more often. hehe
I can't wait for my cousin Peisong to send the final harry potter book from UK for me! I refuse to buy/read the American Version :P
I kayaked on the Houston River Sunday afternoon. It was a great day to be out on the waters not too hot or windy. It was a free kayaking service by volunteers, you just have to sign a form of consent and you are on your way to a 20 minutes kayaking experience. They even have free lockers with locks to put your belongings. I enjoyed it, but not very crazy about it. Maybe water sports isn't my thing, just like how.....snowboarding isn't really fancy. But will do it again if I can. :)
Having nearly escaped from being knocked down by a car late last year, witnessing someone trapped in an elevator with sewage pipe bursting in the roof and water seeping rapidly into the lift, and 5 blocks away from the recent explosion of the steam pipe in Manhattan last week, I definitely thank the special people "up there" looking out for me. And today, with the terrible weather and stomach diarrhea , i happen to have my day off. Such great timings. :P
I'm going to borrow couple of movies later and watch to my heart's content. And i promise i'll start blogging down my amazing episodes in NYC more often. hehe
I can't wait for my cousin Peisong to send the final harry potter book from UK for me! I refuse to buy/read the American Version :P
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)