meeting probably the most famous asian actress alive on the planet today

who could that be? zhang ziyi. yep, the crouching tigress herself. the female villain in rush hour 2. believe it or not, but my friend e is her second cousin! he discovered his relation last year after crouching tiger hit. she was in la last week for her movie premiere (which e went down for) and then she had a short stay over at my friend's place in daly city. she actually stayed in his house and he took her around sunday and monday.

i didn't really have anything to do today, since my plans fell thru and i am ungainfully unemployed. so, i gave e a call today and asked if it would be cool if i were to bump into him and his cuz out and about. he tipped me off that they were going to go to metro 280. he told me not to bring a camera tho. so i went down, happened to bump into him at b&n as he was buying 5 copies of black belt magazine with her on the cover, and then followed him to the car where she was waiting. ziyi was sitting in the middle of the back seat next to i think an uncle and her mom.

e introduced me. ziyi stuck her hand out the window to shake my hand. e told her that i was 5th generation. i guess how that's you can describe me in a nutshell. i think she and the relatives were amazed. ziyi said hello back to me in english. she was friendly and nice from the brief moments of contact. i wished i had said something more, and had e translate. ah well. it was still great to briefly meet her. after a few minutes, i let them go on their way. she said bye. definitely worth the drive down.

e tells me that ziyi was gracious enough to sign my magazines and crouching tiger dvd. woo hoo! i had passed him stuff on saturday.

lost post

blogger lost my posts again! crimminey. long ones too. i think my browser window shut down. man, i gotta get my pc working, so i can get off m,

over the past few days...i did a social experiment walking out in public with a pillow stuffed under my shirt. it was amazing how many people i ran into on the street that i knew...sunday was d and m's wedding. i was an usher and scripture reader at the ceremony in grace cathedral. i was a little nervous. but it went well. maybe it had to do with the 10 times i practiced the passage!

it's been 10 days since my last update, so here's quick run down on new things...

- i met e, t, and c when i hung out with r for the very last o party. it was fun. no more hook-ups for me i guess.

- checked out the stern grove festival. heard the international stars cheb mami, background vocals in sting's desert rose. indian music.

- went to a bachelor party where we ate bbq and played video games. and that's pretty much it. sorta reminds me of a boy's birthday party. kinda strange.

- visited the brainwash cafe on folsom to hear matt frazer, a worship song leader from urbana. it was funny but the audience in the cafe was mostly asian, b/c it was pretty much people from church and lumps.

- stopped by cafe mars on sat to say good-bye to gk. leaving to go to philly. the place was pretty loud.

- went on two free walking city tours. originally had planned to do it all week, but things came up and weather started to suck. monday j and i went to the maiden lane - brothels and boardinghouses tour. learned about the shady, seedy side of san francisco's past. very interesting stories. i highly recommend it. we heard stories about girls, brawls, famous figures...and even how early chinese girls were tricked or forced into a certain often looked down upon lifestyle here. afterwards, j and i got some cheap dim sum on stockton street. we talked to a guy who's a videographer for the air force. he offered to show us around and might have some potential employment for me. we'll see. it would be interesting to check out an air force base. tuesday we went on the pacific heights tour. a whole lotta walking on that one. we saw a lot of famous houses and heard stories of many famous people. learned more about sf archtiecture and how these houses came to be. went inside the flood mansion. very nice place. also the site of sacred heart. hopefully j and i can check out more tours this week.

- j and t came out to check out the hip hop class at 24, which i'm now regularly attending. it was fun. a lot to remember. every time my mind wandered, i would screw up. we were sorta beat afterwards, but we decided to then try the brazilian workout class. a lot of cardio dance. tons of people. like 50 in the room. not too many guys. we did stuff like the samba and other dances. very tiring. not like hip hop, which is choreographed and you practice getting the beat. a lot like afrofunk. you pretty much try to keep up with the teacher and mimic whatever she's doing. i think i still feel last friday's work out.

lakeview

after class, a and i go over to d's place in the lakeview district. i don't think i've been in that area before. it's around san jose st and geneva. can be kinda a scary area. we were there from about 11-12:30am. pretty pooped out after that. i had finished class at around 8, so i went over to borders to do my studying. it was definitely worth it. i was reading how magazine, and i learned about the forced-connections form of concepting for identiries with different reads. not just the first gut intstinct. i know i gotta do that more. it's funny, but stern from my branding class taught me the same thing. another interesting thing from his class was his homework assignment. do something new everyday that scares you.

gw

lionel brainstorming

the past two days i met up with my class partners, a and d, to talk about branding advertising for our assignment lionel trains. it's been good getting to know them. i think our three way partnership has been working out so far. i think i bring more of a strategic and experienced mindset to the group, b/c of my account guy days. not sure if that's all a good thing tho. hope it doesn't limit my thinking. a is originally from brazil and has traveled all over the place. he really hates the american saying "have a nice day" b/c he always thinks wtf should i have a nice day? and then he glares at people back when they say that. d is from san jo and i met d about a year ago from another ad class. d is one of the other 2 asians in the school of 20 some students. d says she's one of the most pessemistic people she's met and is into radiohead. monday we kicked it at kaleo (for the free internet connection). after that we stopped by franciscan hobbies on ocean and picked up some cool lionel catalogs. i think we're making a lot of progress. later on i went to my hip hop dance class, which i hope to do regularly. afterwards i hi-tailed it to the school, to hear the industry speaker, chris cornyn, a cd/principal of his own agency. he gave advice on how not to work for an ignorant a$$. i asked him his thoughts on interactive. (i think that's going to be MY questions for all the speakers, since i'm the only guy on the interactive path at the school.)

yesterday we met up in portrero at farley's. a cool place. there's a magazine stand you can read from. d pointed out that there's a journal of artwork that everyone contributes to. there are also some board games, that people come to play on the weekend. it's cool there, but i think i like borders a little better for the large selection (and location). i think i'm going to continue to go to border's as much as possible after class for design books study time.

after farley's we tried to find a train yard. my mapopolis in my palm told me that there was a train yard on shattuck in berkeley. i drove us over there, and then realized that it was talking about the dumb bart station. after grubbing at barney's, i tried to find a train yard or station in oakland...but the closest we were able to find was the jack london amtrak stop. oh well. aflter stopping by home to get my camera (more driving), i went to have dinner with my po po. we ate at mona lisa in north beach. pasta was good. i think the prices were just ok. we were just walking by and decided to go in. the bread wasn't anything special. i'd probably try another place next time in north beach.

class last nite was a little better. learned more about photography and motion with apperture and exposure speed. i gotta do my assignement this weekend. j, the teacher, was really cool and bought us all film. i think he bought the students beers afterwards, but d and i couldn't stay. we had to go running around to grant and bush trying to find a. he wasn't there. later he said he'd meet up back with us at the old ship, but another disconnect there. we wasted over an hour trying to meet up with him. oh well. i gotta meet up with them again in 30 min now.

friday - patio espanol

i had dinner with my dad at patio espanol. spanish food. supposedly "a mix of arab indulgence, catholic devoutness, jewish resourcefulness, and a pinch of gypsy magic." i dunno. the food wasn't too bad. we had crab cakes, potatoes, garlic soup...and i had lamb medallians. i don't think my lamb was medium rare. a little too cooked. my parents go dancing here. they have some nice banquet rooms with their friends. could be the site for the next lumps banquet.

thursday - the blue tortilla and branding

i had lunch with f today. he gave me some of his old illustrator books and last year's graphic design guild handbook. it's great meeting up with him; he offers me advice on freelance and the industry. hopefully he can help me find a job or internship. we tried to eat at the new eritrean restaurant on irving, but it's closed for lunch now. so we ended up going to the blue tortilla a couple of blocks up. it wasn't too bad. i had the eggs. but i know if i wanted really authentic mexican, i'd just go to the mission.

my branding class was at odiorne. it just so happens that i used to work with stern, the copywriter who is teaching the class. small world. well, his class was pretty good. giving me a better feeling for the school. now i hope that i'll be able to learn good design, not just how to do ads. we'll see. i'll be working on my first assignment...probably something for brooks running shoes or for izod.

wednesday - fourth of july

hung out with the family. i saw moulin rouge with them. i liked it. i think i would have appreciated it more if i were older. i'd then be able to appreciate the songs more. (altho my parents are older and knew even fewer of the songs.)

i would have gone out to see the fireworks at nite, but i felt sick. (i could feel it in my nose and throat since yesterday.) so i decided to take it easy and make it a double movie day. i rented save the last dance and saw it on dvd. it wasn't too bad. i kinda liked the dancing scenes and the music. makes me wanna do the hip hop class again. i didn't really see why the movie won the mtv music award for best kiss.

tuesday - photography class

tuesday was my first real ad school class. it was a photography one. looks like i'll finally really understand how to use my minolta slf that i got 11 years ago! well the regular teacher is in europe on assignment, so this other guy john is filling in for him for the first three weeks. he never told us his last name. well, he wasn't too prepared, other than giving us some hand-outs of some basic stuff about f-stops and exposure speeds that he photocopied out of a book. instead of the three hour block, i think we only had class for an hour! (not a great sign for my first class.) he did give us his perspective on ad school tho, since he came out of there too a few years back. he is also a nice guy. he bought us all drinks at the old ship saloon across the street and he's going to give us all film next week.

i got the chance to get to know some of my classmates better over drinks. i got to know k, who just moved out here about a week ago...just for school. lives by himself, doesn't really know anyone, no transportation, no tv, no internet connection. man, it's really tough. i'll introduce him to some of my friends, particularly since he used to hang out with asians mostly back in boston and in jersey. he knows that there are a lot of asians here in "cali" but after a week he only meets me and d in the school. i know he'll meet more over time. it makes me wonder how hard or easy it would be for me to transplant to another city or do the quarter away thing. i think being christian makes it a little easier, with a starting grounds for a social network and an instant way of connecting to people on a deeper level, sharing faith. well, maybe i'll be putting this theory into test in 6 mo. who knows?

the start of ad school

tonite i had my orientation for the ad school. nothing too unexpected. still figuring out the financial aid stuff. i met the other new students starting. afterwards there was the industry speaker, sean mullins...who is supposedly one of the top hot directors. he works for a production house called headquarters. he's won clios for his stuff. after working on levi's at fcb, he expanded vertically into directing. for him, it was all about the work, not about the money...he knew that he needed to need to create personally too, and moved away from the politics scene of the ad world. (i'm starting to think more that i'm making the right choice, moving now towards design rather than ad, what i was originally interested in two years ago.) he offered some good work philosophy advice: respect your space and creativity. never work in a sweat shop. never make an ad. do something different. he's trying to complete his film in time for sundance. it's called "the kushman" and is a documentary about sf metermaids. it looks pretty good.

restaurant bolting and incredible pizza

sat, i checked out the fillmore st jazz festival with j, g, and a. i went there two years ago. i think it's the biggest of all of the sf street festivals. free jazz, lots of art, and food booths. afterwards, i went to dinner in north beach with a and g. i originaly picked for us to go to tommaso's, which is the oldest pizza place on the west coast and won best pizza on citysearch. the place looked and smelled great. unfortunately the wait was 40 min long, and g was hungry. so instead we went over to vive, one of g's recommendations. no wait at all, but the service sucked. the waitress was slow, it took a while to get water, the bread seemed stale, a found a piece of paper in her water glass (after drinking most of it), the free garlic topping didn't seem too fresh, i had to ask for a refill on water, and the service was inattentive overall. so after a lot of complaining among ourselves, we decided to book before our meal came. i was ok on staying and willing to try out the pasta, but g wasn't very happy at all. finally, a just went up to the waitress and told her of our dissatisfaction! she told her not to take it personally and asked if it would be ok to cancel our order, b/c we were unhappy with the service. very bold. i probably wouldn't have done it myself, but i'm very glad that she/we did it. we did leave a $2 tip. i hope that the waitress didn't have to pay for our meals.

we went back to tommaso's, now 45 min later. we missed our table, and had to wait another 20-25 min...but it was so worth it. we got a small vegetarian pizza with sausage...a fantastic pizza. (not too thick, ingredients weren't too overpowering. not too oily. crust the right chewyness texture.) while we were waiting, i was reading all of the rave reviews on the walls. people magazine had chosen it as one of the best 9 pizzas in the country in 82. some other famous kitchens (like spago and chez panisse) modeled their wood burning ovens after tommaso's. i also learned that the restaurant was named after the long time chinese chef, tommy chin (who had passed away a while ago). we also ordered dessert to share. after trying the spumoni, i think i felt a walnut in there...so i spit it out so that i wouldn't have an allergic reaction. the tiramisu was fantastic. i wonder which place in the city has the best tiramisu.

i would definitely go back to tommaso's. it could be one of my favorite restaurants in the city. the service was also very good...refilling our water after just two sips. :) too bad there aren't any reservations...and the place next door has "the world's nastiest videos." it's sorta by the seedy area and is right across from the millineum. anyhoo...i'm gonna try and go back early on next time with my grandma and try the calzones, which is also supposed to be famous.