My passion will move me...

The seed is planted
Ideas are in the works
Spinning the web of desire
To move once again and all the quirks

Soon I'll be walking
To my favorite places
Instead of pulling hair
For the lack of parking spaces

Where is this place you ask
A walk in closet is where I'll be
In the Hayes Valley in SF
A mere stroll to Davies Symphony

Oh, what joy when the time comes
Gone will be the days of driving in circle
Instead I'll be on a bike pedaling
In a dress colored orange or purple

There was a point when I gave up on the idea of ever moving up to the city. The trauma from the last attempt left me with little to no velleity. It's been a while since that happened and so much has changed in the process that I am once again braving the idea of packing up my bedroom to move to another one the size of my walk in closet :)

Just last week alone, I was up in the city 3 times. That's just insane!!! The amount of time, gas and not to mention the effort of driving back and forth from the Southbay to SF is enough justification for the move. So I've been scouting out neighborhoods and I finally settled into Hayes Valley. I'm so stoked because the Symphony, Opera and Ballet will literally be my backyard neighbors. The freeways are easily accesible, not that I'll be driving. I'm actually going to be taking Cal-train to work. My favorite wine/beer bar will only be a few steps away...yeay!!!!

The only downside to the move is the teenie-tiny size of the studios. I really don't want a roomate so I'm going to have to shoulder the rent by myself. With the current budget I have in mind without sacrificing too much of the lifestyle I've grown accustomed to, a glorified walk-in closet pretty much fits the bill :)

Exciting times this is -

nomadic,

jakey

Mid-Brow Art

Work is totally doing a Chuck Norris style round house kick on me right now. But I welcome the busy, hectic deadlines. It makes my corporate hours go by faster :)

Hence, the late posting but still awesome nonetheless. Friday night was the first time the SF Symphony did an after hours event. It's geared towards the younger listeners. My friend and I had such an amazing, fun time.

Yeah, yeah, I know I always say that everytime I go but last Friday had an extra serving of Je ne sais quoi. There's something absolutely magical about being up close to the musician and see their nostrils flare as they rock out on their chosen instruments.

Okay, maybe not the nose hair flairing part but you get my point. The flaring was provided by a local cellist named Alex Kelly. He was fabulous!

My friend and I sat on the floor in the very front. That's a nice change for once because my regular seats inside the hall are what you call nose bleeds :)

Alex is a total one man show. He would play certain parts of the song, record it and then play a second part and record it and the next thing you know, you're listening to a layered piece that started with one note. He did this live. It's hard to explain so here's the video.






So Alex is actually 1/6th of the band called Mark Growden Sextet. After his solo performance, the rest of the band members joined him. Here's a video of the lead singer playing a bicycle handle (circa 1980) which sounded like a flute. Really cool.

Mark Growden, the lead singer made a joke about how awesome it was to be able to perform at Davies Symphony Hall since the symphony is considered High-Brow Art whereas his band is more like Mid-Brow.

Better mid-brow than uni-brow is all I can say :)





This is a short video but I wanted you to see the trumpet player using the end of a toilet plunger (It's the red rubber thingy) instead of the normal metal round piece that musicians use . I honestly don't know what that piece is called and I tried googling it but can't find the answer. Any musicians out there care to enlighten me? Anyhow, this trumpet player came up to me after the show and was totally drooling all over my pink shoes...ha ha ha! It was hilarious.






Chris: I just have to say that you look amazing! I can't stop staring at your shoes. I love them!

Me: (with an incredulous look) ... Are you kidding me? You're the one up on stage rocking the red toilet plunger! You're AMAZING!!!! LOL!!!! I'm just an idiot with pink shoes on :)



So this went on for a good 30 seconds of us going back and forth about how amazing my shoes looked and how amazing he was on stage....blah...blah...blah... Random!

The infamous pink shoes...

Davies After Hours with Azmeera




With Alex Kelly - Cellist






Fashion Stimulus Clothing Swap


You can take the girl out of the mall but you can't take the shopping out of the girl. In the spirit of my love for fashion and finding good deals, I went to a fundraising event called Fashion Stimulus Clothing Swap on Sunday. So the idea was to bring 5 items of clothing, shoes and/or accessories to the event and in return you get to covet pieces from other girls that have also brought their 5 pieces. It was crazy fun!

CBS, Eye On The Bay was there to do the cover story of the event. My friend and I were interviewed so make sure to tune in next week.

Thursday, April 2nd at 7:00 pm. It's going to be on Channel 5 CBS.

So the fundraising was for La Casa De Las Madres. It's a shelter for battered wives and abused kids.

I'll let you guys know of the next event. They are all over the place. What better way to give back and have fun as well.


Fashion Stimulus Clothing Swap at Paradise Lounge, SF




Our Loot





What are the odds of us finding similar jackets amidst the chaos! So cool!




in good spirit,

jakey

Sham Rock!

Hey bloggies!

Happy St. Patrick's day or the Irish would say St. Paddy's Day.

By the way, St. Patrick was not even Irish. He was actually Welsh. He was captured at the tender age of 16 by the Irish raiders and was enslaved by them for 6 years before returning home.

Oh, and the original color that represented St. Patrick was actually Blue but the Irish have always worn the 3 leaved clover to commemorate St. Patrick because the shamrock represented the Christian belief of Holy Trinity, One God. Hence, the tradition of wearing green was born.

In honor of the hot, dark haired Irish out there, here's a handful of my favorite ones.



Sean Patrick Hannity - He's a Fox News Anchor.



I am shaken and stirred



How can you not like Gregory Peck?



He's cute and he's also turned himself around ever since he became a dad



Peter O'Toole famously known for his role in Lawrence of Arabia - dreamy!




And last but certainly not the least. The ultimate hottie in my book, the incomparable...

Grace Kelly

In case your wondering, I am wearing green.

Have a pint for me bloggies!

Sober Blogger,

Jakey

Detox through music and dance

With all the time I've been spending at the studio lately, I needed a break from the choreography, counting, forms and techniques. So where else would I go to release pent up energy and get silly stupid in dancing and singing along to Depeche Mode's " I Just Can't Get Enough and Erasure's "Oh L'Amour"?

The Cat Club of course!

Thursdays is always 80’s night at The Cat Club. The DJ and I were definitely on the same wavelength last night or should I say “New Wave” length :) He played some really fun 80’s songs that all of us can really dance to and sing along with. Even the French dude and the two Japanese girls in our group were belting out A-Ha’s “Take On Me”. How’s that for crossing cultural barriers.

I think that music in general whatever your preference at the moment might be and in this case the 80’s for me, always bring people from all walks of lives together. For that brief moment in time, we let go of our differences and truly enjoy each other, enjoying the music. It was an extra interesting crowd last night. There were cross dressers, hippies, Goths, a bachelorette with her cronies, and of course the Asian invasion of girls…ahem, that would be us ;) all dancing and singing along to New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle”.

Yup, the dude that looks like a lady shook his groove thang, the dreads of the hippie couples were swinging all over the place, while the goths swayed back and forth and did their own intepretive dance; the bachelorette screamed her head off, and the group of us bounced up and down in unison; that my friends is unity through music. Somehow we all connected through the melody, the vibrations of the energy and the lyrics, experiencing it all at once.

So prior to hitting the club, I did some retail therapy in the shops at Union street. There’s this one store in particular that I’ve been going to for years. It is virtually impossible for me to walk out of Ambiance without buying an article of clothing or an accessory and in most cases both. That was the case last night. I got this really cool short, trenchy looking, black jacket to replace my other favorite Hurley one that is now in jacket heaven :( I’ve also been searching everywhere for this really cute headband that has those feathers and I also found it there. I’d say that therapy session was a success!

So I was telling my friend about Ubuntu and how I wanted to take her there one of these days and she thought that I should try The Plant Cafe which was only a few blocks away from the store. So the girls met up and had dinner there. It felt like I was eating at IKEA with their Beech wood paneled wall contrasted by the plastic-metal chairs. It totally had the sanitary feel to it. Nonetheless I liked the fact that they have the WC sign for the bathroom. You don’t see that too often. WC is the French initials for bathroom but translated in English means Water Closet.

So The Plant is more like a café hence the name rather than a restaurant like Ubuntu. You walk in, you order from the counter, you find a place to sit and they bring the food out to you. I like the zero fuss factor of it. I love food but I also like non-fussy food. I want to be able to recognize, let alone say what I’m eating :) Glancing over the menu, my eyes automatically zeroed in on the grilled eggplant panini.

Side note: I heart eggplant. Growing up, it was the only vegetable that I ate without any consternation. I think it had a lot to do with the color. Whenever my mom came home from the grocery store with the eggplant sticking out from the shopping bag, my eyes glazed over. To this day, whenever I see an eggplant dish on the menu, it is almost guaranteed that it will be ordered.

Do you know that there are types of wild eggplants out there that can grow as big as 7ft long? That is incredible and crazy-scary at the same time. I love eggplant but I also like it on my plate not as a prom date. Talk about a freak show! Ha ha ha! Can you conjure up the image of my 4’11 stature consuming a 7ft long eggplant? That is just so absurd and funny as hell!!!

http://www.theplantcafe.com/

Would I go back? Maybe to try the smoothies or the juices. They stopped serving it by the time we got there :(

Was my Panini good? It wasn't memorable but it definitely hit the spot.

How does it compare to Ubuntu? Not even close.

Should you try it? Absolutely!

- And if their plethora of vegetarian food does not satisfy your taste buds, Izzy’s Steakhouse is right across the street ;)

Going back to the topic of dancing. Now that the foot is back in full action...

I have a couple of dance shows coming up. I’ll send out the e-mail invites soon. I know you’ll be there in spirit, Lianne and Marge :)

As for my local bloggies, come okay? It will be tons of fun. You can see me massacre a hip-hop move or do an interpretive dance of Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours”. Ooh, ooh, maybe even a Hawaii 5-0 routine.

Just kidding...

We will be dancing to the music of the Broadway show "In the Heights". Here's a video from Youtube that will kind of give you an idea of what's in store. Fast forward to about 2:30 and check out the crazy choreography.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgYUqTcXvZY&feature=related

If that's not your cup of tea, fret not, the other show will be a contemporary ballet piece OR you can just crash private parties and watch me and 7 other girls shake our booty to the crazy drum beats of Tahiti.

Hit it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgSyWfhDS3U&eurl=http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=114523084&feature=player_embedded

I hope you're just as excited now as I am! Whatever the case may be, it’s guaranteed good times if not good laughs or both!

dancing queen,

jakey

My littlest warrior

Earlier this evening, I had to say goodbye to the bestest friend I have ever had. We have been through so much together. There were times when I've felt that she's literally the only one that can understand what I was going through. I never have to tell her if I'm sad or lonely. She just knows. Her innate sensitivity makes her the best listener ever. She's never contradicted any of my decisions and accepts me wholeheartedly . When she stayed with me for several months, not once did I hear her complain when I'm out late having fun without her. She was there to share the laughter and the joy. And when I was sad and feeling run down, she was right beside me and kissed away the tears. When I was nursing my foot, she kept me safe and warm. She even kept vigil on my first night in Splitsville. I never have to second guess whether she loves me or not. She walks the talk of action speaking louder than words. She continues to teach me the lessons of unconditional love, acceptance and patience.

She's every man's bestfriend

She's loyal

She's loving

She's part dog and part ham

her bottom teeth are crooked like mine :)

Ginger is my littlest warrior




"I'm leaving on a jet plane, I don't know if I'll be back again..." :(




Take care of you...



jakey

Things Don't Change, We Do...

I had my annual physical check up yesterday. Let's see, so much has changed in a year. My job, insurance carrier, living arrangement, weight, diet, cholesterol level, p.o.t.u.s, heck, even my hair color changed!

I now work for the #1 lender, or so they claim, my insurance costs me twice as much now (thanks "O" mighty One), I apparently lost 3lbs since last year (I think the scale was tipped), I renewed my TB test so I can start chopping away at soup kitchens (hey, I have to start somewhere if I ever want to become the next Top Chef...ha ha...I kid...I kid... I love to eat so I'll leave the cooking to someone else) and my high blood pressure and cholesterol is now within tolerance. Meaning, I won't drop dead while walking down the street, which is such a big relief!

Why was I 3lbs heavier last year? Not that I'm obssessing about it, believe me after dating a personal trainer for 2 years, the last thing I want to think about now is my body mass index and how it all relates to my daily caloric intake! Ugh, talk about being hungry all the time :) So, I did a mental jog as to what I was doing last year and here's what I came up with...

A year ago, I was driving my little heiny to Napa Valley everyday to train the newly hired loan agents by my former company. I was wining and dining out for lunch and dinner everyday. Napa Valley is a dangerous place for a food lover such as myself. No, is not in my vocabulary when it comes to food with the exception of cilantro...yuck! There's a specific restaurant that is hands down, my bestest, favoritest (yes, I'm making up words now...follow along), greatest restaurant ever in my book. And it happens to be an organic/vegan, pure goodness and delight in your mouth, restaurant. They serve the kind of food that will leave you speechless because you'll be too busy eating and licking your fork long after you've polished off the last morsel of their out of this world beet salad and heavenly organic cheesecake served in an old fashion mason jar.

I know right! Let's see, wasn't I bagging on Cafe Gratitude just a few month's back?

You see, this restaurant is not like Cafe Gratitude, although I know deep down inside that CG will someday want to grow up to be just like Ubuntu but it will never happen. Cafe Gratitude will always be the red headed step child...ha ha ha! Cafe Gratitude is a pseudo, feel good about yourself because what you're eating is supposed to be good type of joint. Anyhow, we all know how I feel about their food so no need to elaborate (see: Live. Organic. Vegan.)

Ubuntu is a complete departure from Cafe Gratitude. First off, it has a Yoga studio on the second floor of the restaurant which you can actually see from the dining area below. Secondly, almost all of the furnitures came from salvaged materials, tastefully re-designed to create the eco- friendly, look and feel of the restaurant. My favorite piece is definitely the long community table. Their version is the kind that I someday want to be gracing my home, the long kind versus the circular one that Snowball and I sat on at CG.

So what? Big deal, it's a table!

Well, what makes this table so unique is that it's made out of 2 different types of trees - a redwood and a fir tree that were blown down by the wind back in 2002 in a little town in Occidental, CA. The artisan took these two windfallen trees and created a long table out of it. If that does not impress you then you're in the wrong blog page.

Who are you and what are you doing reading my blogs?

Aaaanyhow, it would have been easier to just purchase a long table at some Scandinavian design furniture store somewhere, but to actually take the time go out to nature to salvage these two fallen trees, milled it, and gave it a second chance in life to be enjoyed, and admired in a whole new way is pretty impressive, don't you think? Talk about the ultimate "want not, waste not"

So Ubuntu is this type of restaurant, you can't help but feel good about eating there. Not only are they environmentally conscious, the food is a complete feast for the senses. Not for one second did it ever crossed my mind that I was only eating a variety of amazing garden grown fruits and veggies. No meat or deep fried evil stuffings of some sort to be had. From the first day I was introduced to this place, I pretty much ate there every chance I got. Since then I have taken friends and told as many people as I can about the place because I love it so much, I don't ever want it to close down.

My last dining experience at Ubuntu was late last year. It was a great meal shared over a bottle of Merlot, if my memory serves me well. I drove up there with Tiesto's, Adagio for Strings playing in the background and my mind filled with excitement and anticipation to be able to share this gem of a restaurant with someone new. I just hope that he continues the cycle and keep sharing. Because you know what they say..."Sharing is Caring" Go Care Bears!

www.ubuntunapa.com

So I just remembered a story I have about the town of Occidental. I attended a wedding there last September at a family owned vineyard. The wedding was perfect, 75-80 attendees. Just enough people to have a rowdy, fun time but small enough that it still felt very intimate. I met the happy couple once before at a Rock Band party (geeky, I know). They are both SF lawyers. So my best guy friend who I refer to as George (as in George from My Best Friend's Wedding but he's the straight version) is best friend's with the groom and that's how I came in the picture. I was the Wedding Date (another movie reference, but no I didn't get paid. I should have asked for some kind of compensation though for being so patient when we got lost for over an hour driving by the same narrow street 4 times! It was like an episode from The Twilight Zone :) So the wedding was really nice and I was all caught up in fantasy land until I heard the groom talking to George which quickly brought me back to reality.


Groom: Thanks so much for coming and doing the reading.

George: No problem. I wouldn't miss it for the world. Glad to be here.

Groom: Yeah, I'm so tired. I was up until 2:00 in the morning finishing up on a deposition.


Stage left - that would be me with a giant screaming thought bubble!

"Wow, really?!?! I'd hate to be married to that one. How sad! Call me old fashion but the only thing I want to do on the night before my wedding day is sleep, or see my fiance or finish up on some last minute detail. Anything but work! Oh well, to each his own...

By the way, if you ever find yourself in the Occidental area, the town before it is Sebastopol which happens to be the location of this awesome bakery that makes the world's best sticky buns aka cinnamon rolls. We happened upon this place right before we went into our wild goose chase of finding the vineyard.

Check it out...

www.wildflourbread.com


Then last night, Marge and I went to go see the San Jose Sharks get their ass whooped by the Minnesota Wild. It was totally in the bag - Sharks had a 2-0 lead at the end of 1st period and then out of dumb luck or sleepiness of the goalie, by the end of the 2nd period they were tied by 3-3! The two points that were scored by Minnesota were rolling pucks! Aarrgghh! where's Nabokov when you need him! Third period ended with a tie so it went into overtime and that's when the crowd grew "Wild" in anger because the other team scored the first goal :( Oh well, another day in a life of a sports fan.

Half time show. Ridonculously Funny!





Jakey

An Open Ending

On Friday night, I had the chance to once again see and hear the beautiful violin virtuoso, Anne-Sophie Mutter. She was amazing. MTT conducted which was a double treat for me. Another added bonus to this concert was that the composer was also there to witness the premiere of her work for the first time in SF. So the geek in me was in classical heaven to have been there to experience a first! Picture this, MTT and Anne-Sophie, on stage and the composer, Sofia Gubaidulina, sitting in the box seat to my peripheral left. Wow!

MTT gave a commentary breakdown of the piece prior to playing. I like listening to him talk. He's so animated and captivating. I can seriously sit there and listen to him talk about music all day long. I probably won't even know half the stuff that he'll be saying but it wouldn't matter because I'll just feed off his energetic passion for classical music. He'll probably talk my ears off about Mahler, who he's obsessed with. Yes, I'm perfectly aware that he's a flamboyant diva but he's definitely on my top 5, lunch date, wish list :)

Time escapes me when I'm sitting in that reddish, velvety chair which by the way is not that comfortable either. I think they purposely designed it that way so that people won't inadvertently fall asleep. Although I love romantic pieces from Shostakovich or Rachmaninoff, they can definitely lull me into a deep, hypnotic slumber given the right medium such as a comfortable chair. So, hooray for semi-itchy, non-rocking, symphony seats.





The symphony offers me the escape from the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. For the two hours that I'm there, I forget everything - worries, fears, egos, self-doubts, sometimes even the person next to me and all the nonsense that we can all get so caught up in defending. When the music starts, I am completely immersed in the sight and sound of each instrument collectively coming together to form a beautiful harmony. Nothing else can give me that experience. Hiking gives me peace and clarity while the symphony gives me the "nothing". The "nothingness" gives me everything I want - silence in thoughts which equates to being present in time. No clamoring thoughts of to-do lists or creating intricate web of future plans. With "nothingness" I get to experience the "now".

After the concert, I sauntered over to the store to see if they have any new classical giants bobble head but they didn't. I found these instead. Soooo CUTE! You HAVE to read the stories. It's HIGHLARIOUS!!!

I had to hold myself back from buying all of it. I have to save some excitement for the next concert which by the way is going to be really fun! After hours anyone?

Check it out...

http://sfsymphony.org/season/Event.aspx?eventid=26946

Then on Saturday, we had a going away party for Marge...sadness :(

I'll miss you Marge! As much as technology creates unnecessary distance, on the other hand it also ridicules the latitude and time zone separating us. What a paradox! I guess, Yahoo Instant Messenger will be my new best friend.

"There is a past, but not now. There is a future, but not now. I have to pee, right now... "

jakey