Ever heard the phrase “The medium is the message”?

That’s absolutely true with blogs. Comments always tend to have a combative air, most of the time because it seems that’s what bloggers respond to. I’ve had people do that to me, where I had to defend myself against an anonymous browbeating. And yes, I find myself doing it on other people’s blogs, albeit trying to avoid the ad hominem insults that are so easy and childish. But the truth is that once you get started down this path, it starts to become all or nothing.

Playwright and blogger Prince Gomolvilas is one such “opponent” who I could spend endless hours debating on his blog (like his choice for top ten films of 2007), but by some miracle, we still remain likeable to each other. It’s truly a testament to the good nature of humanity…that, and also attrition. Maybe it’s just that we recognize the medium and decide to not blame the messenger.

How does it feel to own a piece of original art? Pretty good.

The above is a painting I co-purchased for a cool sum. It was created on the spot at a Los Angeles event known as Tuesday Night Cafe, where many diverse artists congregate to share a free night of music, dance, spoken word, comedy, and more.

As I entered the venue (the patio area of the Union Center for the Arts in front of East West Players), I noticed a woman painting some undefined shapes. I had no idea what it was to become. Later, she would tell me that while she usually sketches out her works, she didn’t have the benefit of a pencil so she just did it off the top of her head. The trees and leaves are apparently characters in her other works, but the way they came together was different.

Her name is Alfie, which you can see signed at the bottom right. This is now hung next to my bed and above my desk, where it will inspire me. Each Tuesday Night Cafe has a different theme, and the one that generated this painting was marriage. So naturally it features two trees bonded at the trunk. And ironically, as co-owner of the painting, I must share this painting with someone else. I get it for 6 months, and she gets it for the other 6. It’s almost as though we have joint custody of our “baby.” And like a real baby, I am responsible for it.

Alfie’s painting actually displaces the previous painting that hung there. Well, it’s a Picasso print that I’ve had for years and years.

I enjoyed this image, but there was always a desire to have some original art, something “real”. So yes, it feels great to have an original art work all to myself (and my co-owner).

Bees Bein’ Strugglin’ - The Octopus Project

USA Men’s Gymnastics took the bronze despite not having the Hamm brothers. And it came down to the second-generation players on the pommelhorse. Raj Bhavsar, an Indian American, Kevin Tan (above), a Chinese American as well as co-captain of the team, and Alexander Artemev, who’s parents came from the former Soviet Union.

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In other news, the LA Weekly gives positive notices to two Asian-American productions currently in Los Angeles, both achieving a “GO!” rating. The 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors‘ “Just Like White People” is described as “incisive and hilarious.” Lodestone Theater’s production of the Tennesse Williams play “Suddenly Last Summer” is called “at times brilliant.” (full disclosure: I work with 18mmw) The Lodestone production is one of the last ever since it will be shutting down after the 2008-2009 season. And Suddenly is a great way to do it…the play is a wonderful exploration of language and one that rarely gets put on, let alone with an almost all Asian American cast. The two female leads carry this one-act to its emotional ending.

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What do graphic designers do in their spare time? If you said make catchy pop music, you’d be correct. Well, at least it’s true for these guys from San Francisco.

Teleprompt - My First Earthquake

How obsessed with the number 8 are Chinese people?

When I worked at a Hong Kong company, all the phone numbers had lots of 8s in them.

When I worked at a Hong Kong company, their American law firm that works with lots of Hong Kong companies had lots of 8s in its phone number too, perhaps hoping that that would entice Chinese clients.

Or how about the fact that the Chinese are starting the Olympics on 8/8/08 at 8:08 pm?

The number 8 has long had mystical qualities. There are 88 keys on a piano. There are 8 hours in a workday. We are said to need 8 hours of sleep. The number 8 when turned on its side looks like infinity. Track 8 of Radiohead’s Kid A is Idiotheque…great song.

Where does this mystique come from? Well, have you ever heard the expression, Gung Hay Fat Choy. The “fat” means something like bling and it sounds remarkably similar to a certain number. It’s as if 9 could be a lucky number because it rhymes with goldmine.

By the way, the above picture is of my speedometer. Yes, I actually stopped to take a picture of this once in a lifetime phenomenon of a reading of 188,888, the second highest number of 8s possibly achievable and the most achievable if you take into account the probable life of the vehicle. Note also the 8 on the small speedometer…icing on the cake.

And let’s celebrate this great 8 date with an mp3. As far as I know, Soliloquy is Frank Sinatra’s only 8 minute song…there are longer ones of course, but this is the only one that’s 8. It’s from the musical Carousel.

Soliloquy - Frank Sinatra

Back in the days when I first started caring about box office numbers, there was one franchise that really stood out: Batman. The first three Batman movies each broke the coveted opening weekend number, setting new precedents for how big movies could be at the box office.

However, signs of fatigue showed. The overall grosses dipped and by the time we got to Batman and Robin, it seemed that the gold mine had been raided.

Now, I know box office numbers ultimately don’t mean much. Movie studios generally don’t make a profit off of those numbers. It’s true. After splitting the numbers with the theaters, marketings costs, above the line people, and other investors, studios are left with a paltry sum at best. But of course, they wouldn’t make films just to break even so that’s where DVDs, rentals, broadcast, cable, etc. push them comfortably over the top…not to mention a growing international market for movies that do well.

But there is one box office number that defies all this. 600 million dollars. It is a majestic number achieved only once by a film most prognosticators had decided would end a couple careers, including that of its risk-taking director James Cameron. Of course, Titanic proved everyone wrong. And rightly so…it was and remains an eminently watchable movie (whether it deserved Best Picture is a separate issue). And it did all of this without breaking any weekend box office records.

In the intervening years between Titanic and today, movies are released quite differently and more reflect the Batman mode of big opening weekends rather than Titanic’s steady consistency. And the Shreks and Spidermans and Pirates of the world all atest to a new brand of movie mania…one that lasts for about a month at best and fades away into whatever’s next.

Whatever next meant: Iron Man…a solidly entertaining and fresh take on the superhero genre that made Robert Downey Jr. into one. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull…an unnecessary retread of the aging franchise that had its moments. WALL-E…another good Pixar movie. Hancock…another good Will Smith vehicle. None over $400 million although Iron Man and Indy 4 hit a very very respectable $300 mil.

I looked at this landscape and resigned myself to a lackluster summer. These were pretty good, but I was done hoping for something that would come close to Titanic in terms of record-breaking…or even something akin to last year’s big THREEs…Shrek the Third, Pirates 3, and Spiderman 3…each hitting $400 million.

The Dark Knight has proved me wrong. I thought this movie would be successful, but based on the last film, Batman Begins, box office was only so-so. Again, the well seemed to run drier than it once had. Well, after a renewal of the franchise bringing in a genuinely great director, Christopher Nolan, and a new modern realism to the Batman character, we find Batman to be not only breaking opening weekend records, but all other records in its path. It took Shrek 2 43 days to hit a $400 million gross, which was the record for the fastest grossing $400 mil. The Dark Knight will do that much in less than half the number of days (UPDATED: 18 days to be exact).

And so it is with anticipation that The Dark Knight is no longer simply another Batman movie, another superhero movie, another summer blockbuster. No, it now gets to be a contender for the greatest grossing movie of all time. Box Office Mojo has the chart for you to follow along if you feel so inclined.

Never mind that The Dark Knight also broke the record for being the widest release in the history of wide releases. It just didn’t feel that way. No, there was something very organic, almost stealthy about the way Warner Bros. dropped this monster into our lap. Historically, WB has been hard up trying to break the $400 million mark. In fact, of its biggest grossing movies, only ONE Harry Potter movie broke $300 million! Simply pathetic by modern movie studio standards. And that’s the logic behind thinking that The Dark Knight would perform well, even better than the previous Batman movie, but not break records.

Then Heath Ledger suddenly and sadly committed suicide. I was shocked at the demise of someone who I hoped would grow with my generation as an artist. It is a reality that remains difficult to face. And in some ways, I think many people have chosen to cope by watching his Joker. It’s an amazing performance mostly, because of the implied terror in the way he carries himself. I’ve never been terrified so much by so little. Ledger’s performance is accompanied by a similarly terrifyingly simple electric string drone that sounds like Glenn Branca’s symphonies, a brilliant use of the maxim less is more.

And then there’s the oddly satisfying idea of a Batman movie that isn’t really about Batman. See, The Dark Knight is much more about Harvey Dent. And at least one person I know walked away feeling like it wasn’t a successful Batman movie. But of course, it was in some ways better, because in a world of self-involved action hero characters, a movie that dares point out the necessary heroism of a District Attorney feels itself heroic.

Tricky’s latest album’s official website http://www.knowlewestboy.com/

Past Mistake - Tricky 

Beethoven.

That’s usually the answer I give when someone asks me what composer I like. I mean, it’s fairly conventional, but it’s really true. Most people however are looking for a slightly more obscure name that sounds a bit less marketable to the untrained professional…perhaps Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Scriabin, Strauss, or some other composer whose name starts with an “s.”

Well, the S’s are great in the 20th Century, but it’s the B’s that ruled before. I’m talking about Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.

And it’s that weird connection between these guys that leads me to what is quickly becoming my favorite Beethoven piano sonata. How many Beethoven piano sonatas are there? 32…more if you count the “unofficial” ones. Admittedly I haven’t exactly gone through all of them and listened with equal intensity. But I’ve heard many of them and have played parts of them.

The stand-outs of the group have names. Moonlight, Waldstein, Appassionata, Tempest, Pastoral, etc. And the one I’m writing about has one too: Hammerklavier. It’s numbered Piano Sonata number 29 and given Opus number 106. And it’s a real mofo.

As part of my musical experiment, I listened to the sucker for a month…one month of Hammerklavier ringing in my head. To be honest, it’s a really hard one to get in your ears so the experiment really helped out. And ultimately, that’s what makes this piano sonata so spine tingling good: The whole thing is ugly.

Andras Schiff says it himself. He scoffs at those who regard it as generically beautiful, like that’s what polite civilized people are supposed to call it. Nope. Beethoven is writing something that is ugly and harsh and difficult and utterly human. Of course, there are moments of conventional beauty, which makes them all the more beautiful because they are surrounded by the coldness of an immense cavern. The correct term I believe is sublime, vast and uncaring like the Himalayas.

The whole last movement of the Hammerklavier sonata is based on a fugue, which comes courtesy of Beethoven’s study of Bach’s amazing and unsurpassed fugal technique. Beethoven makes a run at it, but is also interested in the amounts of sheer noise and pyrotechnics that result. He takes the strictness of Bach and loosens up for some fun. Lots of banging low notes and tender high ones.

Where does Brahms come in? Well, Brahms clearly studied the Hammerklavier sonata. He borrows Beethoven’s use of thirds in the Hammerklavier for his Third Symphony. It’s uncanny really if you know both pieces. Scholars note these kinds of things so it’s really not just my imagination.

So yes, I like Beethoven. But no, he’s not going to roll over. After you charge through his greatest hits, you’ll find a plethora of second-string masterpieces…not second-string because they’re not as good, but just not as conventional or ostensibly beautiful. No, they just feature a deaf guy working out his demons and reaching for the sublime.

Incidentally, I also heard this piece used in a PBS documentary on Charles Schultz, creator of Peanuts and Charlie Brown. I think it was used, because Schroeder is a Beethoven-lover and a sort of cold and uncaring pianist that Lucy pines over unrequited. There’s a sort of happiness I get from knowing that this weird Beethoven piece actually connects to pop culture in some way.

So when are you going to hear it? How about now? The following recording is taken from Schiff’s free lecture on Beethoven’s sonatas at the link above where it says Andras Schiff. Go check out the entire lecture since he spends almost an hour and a half explaining and demonstrating the genius behind this piece.

Hammerklavier sonata, final movement sans intro - Beethoven (Andras Schiff live)

So now living in the San Gabriel Valley (the OTHER Los Angeles area valley), one wonders where culture resides. Surely they it can be found in the megaplexes that dot the landscape playing summer blockbusters. Surely they it can also be found in the chain bookstores and coffee shops that provide many with a home away from home.

But here I actually mean culture…as in something unique and local. Here are three:

Southwest Chamber Music www.swmusic.org

This group plays throughout the year but in the summer they do concerts at the Huntington Library. Situated in San Marino, the Huntington Library is really a respite from the modern world. They have a great collection of paintings. They have a pricey afternoon tea. They have an amazing library (duh) that I think includes a Gutenberg Bible. They have lots of gardens featuring tons of plants from around the world including a recently unveiled Chinese garden (which continues their themed Asian gardens after their Japanese one).

To complement the Chinese garden, the upcoming Southwest Chamber concert on July 25-26 will feature a piece by Joan Huang about Suzhou, the area of China that inspired the garden. The following concert also features another Asian composer, Vietnamese composer Phuc Linh. Of course, they also include Mozart and Beethoven and other traditional classical composers on the bill as well.

If you need more convincing, check out this video of a guy explaining the idea behind the concert.

Stillspeaking Theatre stillspeakingtheatre.org

Alright, so what the heck am I doing promoting a Christian theatre company when I’m not really Christian nor do I plan to spend my entertainment hours being lectured about Christianity?

The answer is that the work is quality and not preachy. In fact, I walked away from their latest show, Facing East, questioning why a Christian ensemble would mount this show. It deals point blank with homosexuality in the Mormon faith and seems to condemn simply asking gay people to be celibate or excommunicated. On top of that, the writing of this show is quite good, featuring lots of imagined flashbacks that take us deep both in a Mormon family and the heartbreak of losing a son to suicide and having to deal with his gay lover, who is not Christian.

Incidentally, this is also located in San Marino not too far from the Huntington Library. It runs until August 3rd.

Summer Jubilee 2008

http://www.cityofalhambra.org/government/parks_recreation/Jubilee08.html

So going west of San Marino, what does the town of Alhambra have to offer…besides really good Chinese food?

Apparently they were able to get some known performers to come out and give free performances. Now, we’re not talking Jay-Z or Madonna here…let’s be reasonable. But The Beach Boys (July 26), Foreigner (August 2), and Kenny Loggins (August 9) isn’t the worst you could name. In fact, Beach Boys alone are pretty great…wonder if Brian Wilson himself is showing up.

In fact, downtown Alhambra has undergone a kind of upgrade with clubs, restaurants, and a megaplex. Other notable institutions include a great salsa club with live band and classes (Granada Club), a concept store with cool art and knick-knacks (Gallery Nucleus), and a microbrewery.

And for your troubles, here’s a short sweet summer-esque mp3:

Even the Sunbeams - From Bubblegum To Sky

Good Lies - The Notwist (website)

Sponsor (It Didn’t Mean a Thing) - Quitzow (Myspace)

No Devil Me No More - Setting Sun (website)

Ivan Colon (myspace) is a singer/songwriter type of the folky/Sufjian Stevens mold. If you like Stevens (and I suspect you do), Colon should do something for you as well. I know little of the man except that he’s from Redlands, California and likes to eat large quantities of cherries.

Oh yeah, and he has an EP dropping July 15. Anyways, his music speaks for itself.

Gabriel - Ivan Colon