ch, ch, ch, changes...

i [eric] decided to set up shop on a new blog. i signed up for a webhosting service [something i hope to take more advantage of in the coming months]. i posted once or twice over the summer, but not really regularly. fall has started, gigs are coming in, new adventures await, i figured now was as good a time to start as any. first post is just a gig list for the fall. as you'll see there's some hecka cool stuff coming up.

here's the new location
http://erawk.wickedzoot.com/

PME J&P 06: Crowdin'

Last night The Pacific Mozart Ensemble (PME) began it's last season of the year. And what a year it's been. First we went to NY to sing with Meredith Monk. Upon returning we find out The Bernstein Mass was nominated for a Grammy (is was an honor to be nominated). We had an amazing Fund Raiser that showcased a host of new talent. Then we had a 25th Anniversary concert featuring new works from David Lang, Dave Brubeck and a 'reinterpretation' of an old Monk chestnut. This all left us in a bit of a daze heading into our traditional year end show, the A Cappella Jazz & Pops.

The show is a departure from our usual format. As with most choruses, the material is chosen by the Artistic and Music Directors, Dick Grant and Lynne Morrow. The J&P show is something else entirely. Folks in the chorus find or write out their own arrangements, put together groups on their own time, and then audition for a committee. The show isn't, therefore, programmed in the traditional sense. The committee puts together a show from the material provided. As a result the show is never the same twice. Different folks will emerge and fade as stars of the show. Different styles pop in and out as the mood strikes the chorus. It really is a neat phenomena. It's typically our most popular show. We usually sell out 3 shows (as opposed to struggling to fill halls for 2 in other seasons).


My major dog in the hunt this year is an arrangement of Sufjan Stevens' 'Come On! Feel the Illinoise!' from the recent album of the same name. I've been on a bit of a Brian Wilson kick over the last few years. When I heard Stevens' latest I immediately thought of PME taking it on. It's been tough for us to get the hang of it. It starts in an compound meter (1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2 1-2) and then shifts to 2 in the middle. For the non-music geeks in the audience, that's code for hard. Plus, in the spirit of the great Maestro Wilson, there are a million little bips and boops and 'pet sounds,' if you will, all over the place. The stereo affect of all those little parts happening in different spots is pretty cool. Of course, that stuff is way easier to make happen in the studio. Pulling it together live is a totally different animal. I think last night it totally came together. I walked out during sound check and really heard it happening. At one point I lost my concentration cause it was sounding so coooool.

Ok, enough about that. You really want the pics, right? Well here they are. I tried to get every group to showcase the variety of different sounds we produce in the concert. I couldn't get everyone, mostly 'cause it was so damn hot in there that I had to take some breaks!

Enjoy,
-E

Gloomy Sunday

Gloomy Sunday indeed. When I woke up it was threatening rain. Around here that threat practically a grantee. By the time I got myself going it was pouring pretty hard. I took the time to catch up on some email and practice for the coming PME concert. After a while the rain cleared up so I took a little walk around the city. I managed to get a few nice shots of some of the more interesting buildings in the area. Singapore is interesting that way. There is no central design philosophy of the city. All of the buildings are pretty unique. On the whole it makes for a bit of a mish-mash, but individually it lets designers try out interesting shapes and styles. I didn’t really get around as much as I hoped so I just have a smattering to share with you.

Tomorrow it’s back to work and thank god for that. When we left off on Friday things were just getting cooking and I’m anxious to see how the experiments turned out. For now, here’s all the pics from today.

-E

Singapore Saturday - Sungei Buloh

So as I mentioned in my last entry, I have Saturday off so what to do? I've been concentrating on work since I got here and didn't really plan for this eventuality. CH tried to get me to book a room on BinTan island earlier in the week but I never got around to it. By the time I tried on Friday everything was booked. I never really take advantage of being here. It always seems that I am wedged inbetween dates and have to get back by a certain time. The very first time I believe the date in question was Thanksgiving. That was touch and go. In the end I flew into the US on TG day and drove the 6hrs to Alisal to have dinner with the family. Whew!

But I digress. What to do with a day off in Singapore? Well, to give you an idea of what it's like here, the biggest event happening right now is the Big Singapore Sale. It is freakin everywhere. Every store has a sign up. The DJs talk about it on the radio stations. It's on every promotional piece I've seen. This is all about shopping. That's one of the things that define Singapore, the stores that for the most part sell western clothes and electronics. I managed to get myself as far away from that as possible. On Friday a friend mentioned Sungei Buloh, and the concierge at the hotel thought it would be a good choice for me. A nice walk in nature, check out some exotic animals, get outside for a while. For the most part it totally lived up to the promise. It was so nice to do something other than sit on my butt in front of my computer or in meetings.

Getting to the park was interesting. It's easy to get anywhere from the hotel 'cause there is a taxi stop outside that's almost always got a taxi waiting. The concierge told me it was dead easy to get out to this place. Taxi out, taxi back. No problem! Well, the first taxi didn't have any idea what I was talking about. The second nodded and said he would take me, then got on the phone to his friend 'cause he didn't actually know where it was! Alright it was pretty tame for an "adventure" but I was amused. When I got to the park I thanked him, but he thanked me right back for helping him learn where this place was. He also said there would be no hope of a taxi back. Hmmm.

On to the park. Frankly it starts off a little disappointing. It's mostly mud flats and trees. It really takes a while before you get into the interesting stuff. One fun thing, though was that the wildlife that is there is not fenced off in any way. About 10min into my walk I almost stepped on a 6" lizard. After that I kept a more watchful eye and was rewarded with a Malayan Water Monitor (Varanus Salvator). As you get deeper and deeper into the park the animals get more and more interesting, and the people get scarce. The park is about 2mi deep. I would say after about 1mi I stopped seeing anyone. I went about 30-45min without seeing a soul. It was nice to feel I was in the middle of knowhere. However, there were one or two times when I got startled by something and wondered if it was so great to be so far out on my own. I'm sure everything was harmless, but sometimes you can't help your mind running off on you.

In the end I walked around for 2-3 hrs. I lost track. By the time I was done I was drenched with sweat. It is indeed quite hot and humid here. I think most of the locals get scarce around 2pm, disappearing into the confines of their air-conditioned flats or congregating in the air-con shopping malls that prevail in the city. As for getting home, remember the thing about the taxi? Well it turns out there's a bus stop about 20min from the park that takes you to the train (MRT). That was pretty fun, actually. I was worried about an incoming storm, but it was kinda cool to ride the bus and train back. For the majority of the drive I was the only Ang-Mo (red-hair) in site. I got some funny looks, but I don't know if it was my skin color or the clear sweat demarcation on my shirt. It turns out I rode the MRT right by work. That was kinda cool. I was basically riding through the neighborhoods of the folks I work with. It's a totally different kind of living compared to what I'm used to. Folks live in flats in big highrise complexes. As you right the MRT they go by one after the other. The only breaks are the occasional industrial parks like the one Seagate inhabits. The population density is staggering!

Ok, that's enough for now. Here are the pics. There's a couple more food pics at the end, just for measure. They are actually from Friday and should belong to the previous post but I forgot em.

-E

Working in Singapore

Wow it's hard to believe it's been a week already. Time really flies by when you're working. And working on both US and Singapore time. 9am mtg in US? That's a midnight meeting out here. 2pm US, 5am here. You get the picture. Speaking of pictures, I mentioned the food so here's a little food log of some of the vast variety of food available. I have to start off with the fish-head curry. I think the first time we went here (last visit) it was a dare. It's a tad off-putting when you first see the head emerge from the bowl, but it's so tasty I forget. I can't take the eyes, though. When I was here last time one of my colleagues snapped them up. This time we let them be.

That night I had one of my favorite Singapo-la dinners: Laksa. So bad for you. Spicy noodles, some fish and lots of coconut milk. Add some Tiga Beea and it a it's the perfect meal... until the heartburn hits. I love the spicy food, but it doesn't always love me back. In the morning it's always nice to counteract it with some nice dragon fruit. I never see this in the states. It's totally yummy. Watery like watermelon or kiwi, but kinda tart. Delish!

Last night we had a fun dinner with the gang at a Thai restaurant around the corner. Tom Yom Gun soup. So good. Again, so spicy! Of course, since this is all the production engineers, they had to take a time out around 10 for a call. Twice daily. 10am, and 10pm. 3 of them were on the call, but everyone at the table was on the hook if something was going wrong at the factory. It's amazing how hard everyone here is working. As I understand it this is one of the first weekends in a long time where they're not all working both days. That leaves me to find an adventure for tomorrow and Sunday. For now the only adventure I'm interested in is sleeping past 6am. Then we'll see.

For now here's the pics
-E

Singapore Day 1

Well I am here to work, so this is going to be brief. I have some pics to share. First, one last bit on the journey to the Airport. I can't believe I forgot this the first time. The iPod vending machine. Of course you've probably heard of this. Pretty funny, but what struck me (and others) was the audiobooks for sale. Hardwired flash with just one book on it. Nifty idea, I didn't see whether the battery could be replaced. I'd image there's only a certain number of uses per unit. Disposable audio book. Genius, and expensive.


Anyway, on to Singapore.

Here's a few pics from today. One of the coolest things in Singapore is all the different kinds of food. It's always interesting and usually very good! There are so many different cultures here in such great numbers that they support a large number of highly specific tastes. I remember when Neal was living her he mentioned that hardly anyone eats at home. You can get a very good cheap meal easily at all hours of the night. My 1st forays are pretty tame. It takes a lot of will power to not go crazy at the hotel buffet in the morning. I have to remind myself I'm not on vacation. 10 days of heavy breakfasts add up. Plus if I gorge myself in the morning then I don't get to enjoy the really fun lunch meal. Keep it light. So tough!

Anyway, here's a few pics for today.
-E

Off to Singapore, but first . . . BART!

Oh BART, I want to love you. I really do. But you make it so hard. When I was growing up in the ‘80s you held so much promise. As a kid my grandmother would take me for a day on the BART. We took all 3 lines too every single station. When I think about it now, what a cheep date I was. On and off at the same stop? Couldn’t have been more than $1.50. I loved it! 3 lines. Hmmm. I guess that was the problem. Those 3 lines remained stagnant for years. Then suddenly there was an explosion new stations, Concord extended out to Pittsburgh, a whole new line was put in to get folks out to Dublin. At that point I was working in Fremont. I would watch the BART map blossom with new color. The color I was most interested in, however, was gray. Dotted gray to be exact. You see the Fremont line stops 10miles short of my work. For years now there has been a gray dotted line indicating an extension to Warm Springs. In 2000 (2002?) there was a ballot initiative to provide money to complete the extension. I voted. It passed. The money was spent upgrading existing lines. Sure I can ride my bike. Sometimes I do (although very infrequently). The 10mi takes about 30min by bike (there is a bus, but it too takes 30min and comes so sporadically that timing it can be stressful). If I time it just right I can make it from door to door in about 1.5hrs. Compare that to my normal commute of ~45min to 1hr. And then there’s the cost. Something like $6.50 round trip each time. It’s actually cheaper and way faster to drive. Still I do it when I can. Better to be reading and riding than driving, cursing at traffic and polluting. Maybe one day that extension will come. I’m not holding my breath.

So today I am off to Singapore. Usually I hire a car to get me to SFO, but I thought I’d try public transport this time. I remember in Chicago and London that taking the train to the airport was hell of easy. But then those are cities that value public transportation. As cosmo as we in the Bay Area think we are, we are still very much rooted in the car culture we so quickly identify with the dreaded LA. Maybe we hate LA so much because it is a little too close to us for comfort.

But I digress. My journey starts at 9:15 when I call a cab. I’m up in the Oakland Hills and way way to far to walk to BART with all my stuff. There are busses and to be honest I didn’t even concider that. The cab comes at 9:20 so lets call that my start time. Cab to BART: $12.50 + tip = $15. Holy crap! I didn’t clock it but I think the whole journey is only about 3-4 miles. I timed the train pretty well, it comes at 9:30 and I have a nice long wait to transfer at Balboa. Balboa, let’s just stop here for a second. This is the transfer for the train to Milbrea. As I wait 10min for the train I notice the pigeon spikes everywhere, along with, you guessed it, pigeons. This one made a nest in the spikes. Very effective. But wait! There’s more! Every few minutes these tiny little speakers go off with a terrible shrieking that is supposed to sound like a bird of prey. It is literally painful to listen to, if you’re human! Of course the pigeons are completely un-phased. This picture is taken about halfway through one of these episodes. This was possibly the most annoying transfer ever. Well done BART!

So I got there just fine, at 11am. Total journey: ~1.5hrs, $21. If I hired a cab it would have been more for sure, maybe double, but it would only have taken about 40min tops. Hmmm.., tough call.

BART you’re breaking my heart. Will you ever be truly effective? There are so many cases where you’re more of a hassle than driving. Rarely are you cheaper. If wasn’t traveling alone you most certainly would not be. The BART ticket was $5.60. If I’m a family of four that’s $22.40. The whole problem, of course, is not the system ,it’s getting to the system. If BART was walk-able it would be a no-brainer. But there are so few lines and so few stops that it’s rarely the case.

Well that’s my disappointing story about our meager Bay Area Rapid [sic] Transit. Next post from Singapore should be more exciting.

-E