Us on a Bench

I've traded the comfort of my chair for the view from our bench.

(Picture taken with a self timer in Newport, RI, 2010)

Inspiration from Rockwell:

Mooncake in November

This is my third try in making Suzhou style mooncakes. Result: a chopstick war between my grandparents!

How to Train Your Dragon

Toothless!

Inspired by DreamWorks

PUGliacco

I feel the love

When I went back to my parents' house two weeks ago, I decided that I was finally ready to brave the boxes containing my cloths that has been sitting around since the move 5 months ago. Cleaning out my cloths was like shopping at a mall. I keep rediscovering clothes that I've forgotten!

As I sorted through my clothes, I realized, for the first time, how much of my clothes were given to me, not as presents but as hand-me-downs (really nice ones too)! They're mainly from my friends, and some from this really pretty lady that I volunteered with back in high school. I then tried to remember if I've ever given away my clothes in exchange, and I couldn't remember ever doing that. Now, this is quite peculiar to me. I went through my head some reasons as to why people keep giving me stuff:

1. I look like I don't have enough clothes to wear, and, o darn, the winter's almost here.
2. My friends think I'm a horrible dresser and are slyly hinting at it.
3. I'm innately more attracted to out-dated clothes that my friends are desperately trying to get rid of.
4. My friends love me so much that they want to share some of their closet goodness with me!

I'd like to think that it's the last reason. No matter what their reasons were, I'd like to say THANK YOU to all my friends (and that random pretty lady) who contributed to my closet. I adore just about every item I've received because I feel the extra love, articulated in your act of giving, that is associated with my clothes .

Photo: a Tahari sweater, an Express necklace, an orange scarf, a DKNY sweater, a pair of sparkling heels, a striped sweater dress, a blue summer dress, and lastly, a cat. This is only the tip of the iceberg.

Disclaimer: the cat wasn't a hand-me-down, but she was from a foster home, so she sort of fits in the picture. She's there mainly because I can't shoo her away from the sparkles of the necklace.

Art of the Tummy

home made mapo tofu shot with my new 50mm f1.8 lens :)

Some may argue that this is the best kind of art!

Stress Symphony

The mental states of a medical student as captured in music and art:

1. A Good Study Day - Generally on the weekend.  Starting the day with a cup of coffee, a full night's sleep, and some well-written text.  There are several trains of thought going on, but I can manage keep tabs on all of them and the tempo is steady.  I actually feel smarter and smarter!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvHokjQ6enI&feature=fvst
(Bach - Fugue in C Major - From the most collected and tactically brilliant composer.  Just listening makes me feel smarter.)

Mondrian - couldn't find the title.  100% structured and rational.

2. PreTest Day - (The Good Version) - Torrents of information drift around in my mind and seemingly participate in some sort of naval battle.  The overall effect is still coherent and the slightly increased stress level helps me focus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zikmAirQqQ&feature=related
(Chopin - Revolutionary Etude - Swarming and intense, passionate with undertones of discord but still beautifully melodic.)

Delacroix - Girl Seated in a Cemetary - Emotional but sensical and representational

3. PreTest Day - (The Bad Version) - I realize that I am completely unprepared.  Like the demon king, stress and trepidation stalk me and pursue me from the shadows.  Fear clutches my heart and at the same time I am tantalized by the myriad of online entertainment available at my finger tips.  The demon king eventually overtakes my senses!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8noeFpdfWcQ
(Schubert - Erlkonig - A father races with his sick child through the wintery night and arrives only to find the child dead in his arms.  Very powerful and stressful music.)

Munch - The Scream - Look! The Guy's getting closer!

4. PreTest Day - (The Ugly Version) - PANIC!  Everything is discord and nothing makes sense.  The mere thought of the exam makes me hyperventilate (thereby resulting in respiratory alkalosis).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLU3l-XNDlw
(Crumb - Night of the Electric Insects - Probably the most cacophonous thing I've ever heard.)

Bacon - Pope Innocent X - This is the most frightening painting I can imagine. It's not just that he's screaming, but he's being eaten away.

5. Test Day - (Before) - The time is here.  The sheer panic abides, but only a little.  I am left with undulating resolve, interchanging with the peace that comes with acceptance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ2OAS9UTCA&feature=related
(Verdi - Dies Irae - The Latin means, "Day of Wrath."  I think you would agree with the sentiment even before hearing the music. )

Rodin - The Gates of Hell - and you're about to walk through them...

6. Test Day - (After) - Nothing as exhilarating.  Nothing but blue skies... until the next exam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av6thnSR4qE&feature=related
(Berlin - Blue Skies)

Matisse - The Dance - Note blue sky in background.

Comment on the art that captures what YOU feel!  Personally, I think that's what art is all about.

Vintage it?

A stolen moment of joy garnished by a subtle ray of sun:

Another simple experimentation in PS with a photo of my friends I took two years ago.

Modern glow or Old Shanghai glamour?

Kitty love

fooling around with photo editing in PS (multiplying a layer of old photo on top of the compilation) while feverish with the stomach flu and behind in studies.

Memory lines

The hemp string of photos on wooden clips goes around the whole room.

I wanted a green/cost-efficient and easy way of displaying my pictures/fill up my walls in my new apartment. The best part is how easy it'll be to change out the photos when I get sick of 'em!

Like it? Hate it?

Dress Design... maybe for a certain wedding next october

Evgene Onegin

I just finished an amazing work by Pushkin, Evgene Onegin.  The form is very unique-- it's a novel in verse.  So it's like a more modern Iliad, except that James E. Falen actually manages to translate it with rhyme.  Here's a great passage, where Onegin kills his best friend in a duel because of a silly misunderstanding.

Ilya Repin's Depiction of the Duel

(Chapter 6, verses 29-32)

The gleaming pistols wake from drowsing.

Against the ramrods mallets pound.

The balls go in each bevelled housing.

The first sharp hammer clicks resound.

Now streams of greyish powder settle

Inside the pans.  Screwed fast to metal,

The jagged flints are set to go.

...

'Approach at will!' Advancing coldly,

With quiet, firm, and measured tread,

Not aiming yet, the foes took boldly

The first four steps that lay ahead--

Four fateful steps.  The space decreasing,

Onegin then, while still not ceasing

His slow advance, was first to raise

His pistol with a level gaze.

Five paces more, while Lensky waited

To close one eye and, only then,

To take his aim.... And that was when

Onegin fired!  The hour fated

Has struck at last: The poet stops

And silently his pistol drops.

He lays a hand, as in confusion,

On breast and falls.  His misted eyes

Express not pain, but death's intrusion.

Thus, slowly, down a sloping rise,

And sparkling in the sunlight's shimmer,

A clump of snow will fall and glimmer.

Eugene, in sudden chill, despairs,

Runs to the stricken youth... and stares!

Calls out his name! --No earthly power

Can bring him back: the singer's gone,

Cut down by fate at break of dawn!

The storm has blown; the lovely flower

Has withered with the rising sun;

The altar fire is out and done!

He lay quite still and past all feeling;

His languid brow looked strange at rest.

The streaming blood poured forth, revealing

The gaping wound beneath his breast.

One moment back-- a breath's duration--

This heart still throbbed with inspiration;

It's hatred, hopes, and loves still beat,

Its blood ran hot with life's own heat.

But now, as in a house deserted,

Inside it-- all is hushed and stark,

Gone silent and forever dark.

The window boards have been inserted,

The panes chalked white.  The owner's fled;

But where, God knows.  All trace is dead.

As tempting as it was to include a clip from Tchaikovsky's opera, the trailers from the movie on youtube were more impressive.  (I don't like the modernist staging that the Met put on last time.)  Here's one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i1_dPf9Th4 set to Alanis Morrisette.

Doodle

"tweet"

something for the wall of my new apartment
acrylic on 8x10 canvas

Do less shopping

and my creativity will blossom. Promised by this article.

After a day of window shopping for a coffee/cocktail table, I really felt like this article spoke to me.

Images of Maine

The incredible Maine and its beautiful weeds

My dancing partner (who ended up in my tummy after the music stopped)

A Maine bee's life

Blueberry pie crashed into a sailboat and some sea gulls

Diving into Maine

A potential postcard?

A quick sewing project for a beautiful lady (made two hours before we had to leave)

The only Rain in our Sunny vacation

The original Pinball machine circa the beginning of time (discovered tugged into a corner of the house)

Photos from Cape Cod

Beach Still-life

Breaching Humpback Whale

Shadow Portrait

Shadow Portrait 2

Sunset

Ody at Sunset

Beach-rock closeup

Shirt-dress and Matching Doggy Collar

It used to be a long sleeved men's shirt.  Now... fashionable, trend-setting clothes for two.  ;)

Currier Courtyard Watercolor

Man-Apron

BEFORE... (Original pic I found on google)

AFTER... (final man-apron design)

Ruby's for the heart

Some years ago, this boy showed up at my door step dressed quite dapper in a crisp blue shirt and asked for me. After some serious nagging and physical pushing, my roommate convinced me to entertain the boy who commenced to sweeping me off of my feet. In short, he tricked me to the Eliot common room where he made up fanciful lies of his beautiful family consisting of multiple mothers and countless siblings in some country named Kyrgyzstan. After which, the boy resorted to the old trick of showing a girl how to work a queue on a pool table. What can I say? It worked on me. Five hours of talking later, he attempted his first kiss after walking me back to my dorm. I turned my head just in time and refused.

4.8 years and seven countries later, the boy brought me back to the same pool table where it all began. What can I say? The trick worked on me again.

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010 was a pretty sunny day. I woke up smiling not having a clue to why. The boy informed me that he absolutely cannot miss the Argentina vs Germany morning match and left me to join his father and brother at a local bar. "Okay," I said with a huge grin. He got suspicious. Where's the normal nagging? She must suspect something. After the game, we met up at Harvard T Stop to go sculling. He wanted to take a short cut through Eliot. "Okay" I said cluelessly. We passed the common room, and I pointed out how this is where our first "date" was. We should definitely go in for old time sake. Hmm... She definitely suspect something! He then pointed towards the pool table and casually suggested a game of pool. I agreed. He then complained he was thirsty and wanted me to get a soda from the vending machine. I said 7-eleven got it cheaper, we'll just grab one after the game, but he seemed so thirsty so I reluctantly agreed to get a soda before returning to the table. Of all the clues earlier that I could have picked up, I chose this moment to become suspicious. He just came out of a bar; how thirsty can he get? Hmm, we're conveniently in Eliot's common room. Hey, I remember how he was the one that showed me my first pool game. Barely having enough time to finish my thoughts, I reached in one of the cubbies to get the pool balls and...

Oh my God that's a ring box! There, he knelt and popped the question, and gave me my ruby ring. Afterwards, he led me to my old dorm room and attempted to kiss me again. This time I accepted.

His family soon joined to send us their congratulations before I was whisked away again into the subway. I reemerged at South station only to go on a 2 hour bus ride and then a 45 minute ferry ride arriving at Martha's Vineyard. We made it just in time for my lobster dinner and a bike ride along the beach to arrive at our gorgeous inn located in the middle of downtown Edgertown. The weekend that followed was amazing, and the rest is history folks!

Net result: Soychiatry just got its second wedding planning client!

Fugitive trails of fire trace daisies in the sky

(On the occasion of the engagement of two very good friends)

Fugitive trails of fire trace daisies in the sky
While brilliant pinks draw streaks hot and bright
And jubilant bubbles pop, climactic, to announce the light
Simmering joy and elation singe the air up high

Down below, you lovers say your deep-throated vows
With breaths steaming in passion burnt white
As you devote yourselves, touch, sound and sight
To life, to love, forever and right now

The fire of your rapture burns and melts the ore
That joins you together in your tender covenant
Not with shackles, but with wings that Cupid lent
To one each, so that together you can soar

Service Animal

He sleeps now. His breaths travel familiar currents through those glistening black nostrils, but they are too often interrupted by gasps and wheezes. Once in a while, his paws twitch dreamily, as if they were still carrying his bristling body through endless fields or rocky beaches. His tail wags at some imagined joy. His jaws munch on an imagined treat.

I remember when you were a puppy, and you never walked, but pranced all day long as if life were a parade. I remember how proud you were when I trained you to perform your duties. You took upon the tasks I couldn’t do myself. Where I was weak, you were strong, and you’ve been carrying me all these years. The love and devotion that were in your gaze from the very beginning – it was easy to trust you completely.

I stir and you wake to gaze at me with your inquiring eyes. No, I don’t need anything right now. You can rest. Peace be with you.

In your eyes, I see a more splendid image of myself than I dare seek from any other source. You are blind to the ways in which I am broken. You are indifferent to my excessive needs. To you, I am a whole person—without disability, without fault. Who knew that my indomitable illness would find its nemesis in your four fleet paws, two floppy ears, and one curly tail? Your unwavering love has been my constant guide from sickness to health. You are the magical elixir that gives life to a dead woman. Thank you for your service.

CAKES 'N More~!

A birthday cake in the shape of a traditional Yurt. Decoration is inspired by a rug from Kyrgyzstan.

Wedding Venue Pictures - Raphael Vineyard

Here are some pictures from the wedding venue.  I visited last weekend to get an idea.  The place is gorgeous and we're super excited!  I can almost see the beautiful wedding pictures that are going to come out of this place.