La 1st Gig

So yesterday was the Tet Festival - a Vietnamese celebration for the Chinese New Year. Everyone came over for a brief meeting and quick rehearsal then we headed through traffic to the Festival.


Kevin Lien - you know that Wedding Dress guy on Youtube? Drove Bailey and I but we got completely stuck in crazy traffic so we were there about half an hour after everyone else. We took out all our equipment and put it by the stage.

There were DJs, dancers and what not. Then our set went on, Momo was up first then Yuki then me then Can and Charles from Poreotics and finally, Kevin Lien. I had a lot of fun! I was pretty nervous but I'll have a look at the footage later to see if it was okay.

I had a good supportive crowd. Even some Australians were there so I felt a little more comfortable as they cheered their lungs out. Some people even came up to boogie it up in front of me. And right at the end, some people came up to give me hi 5s. I was really happy. I was lucky to have such a great crowd, especially for my very first show.

Afterwards, Kevin, Tony and Yuki had to do two songs up on the main stage where it was being filmed for TV then we all went to Korean BBQ for dinner. Yuki went home though. Our salesmen, band and all the musicians came to all eat. Man, I love Korean BBQ. I laughed so loud and so much over dinner. It was a great group of people!!

Disappointment

"I am an artist as much to speak, to create, as I am to listen and learn.
Creation is a journey, Self-discovery is Art.
Your work is what you learned, shared with the world."
-King

Disappointment - it's a big word to swallow huh?
It's even harder to swallow down if you receive it five folds.

So I've received 4 phone calls and 1 email in the last 24 hours from family friends all expressing their disappointment in me.

Okay so I'm not following the traditional steps of university right now but I just don't know where I want to go. I don't want to enroll in any degree just to get their satisfaction.

I've learned that Engineering is not for me, nor does it invoke any passion out of me.
What can I say to make them understand that - I promise wholeheartedly that I will not fail. I'm not trying to be lazy, I'm just trying to find me.


I just ask for patience and I will deliver.
Don't worry, its a BB gun.

Two Years

Today is the 2nd year anniversary of this humble blog. Too bad I have nothing exciting to write about.

Happy Chinese New Year!
明けましておめでとう
新年快樂！恭喜發財！


We went to Tony and Giana's gig at The Lab in Costa Mesa. It was cute, laid back and interesting! The set before them was good but not very energetic - so Giana and the band did bring a lot more crowds in. The 'Antimall' (they call it an anti mall because apparently its for hip young people) set them up in the car park.
Poppycock Popcorn - is the best thing ever, hands down!

Giana called me up to shake an egg for her cover of Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap. How embarrassing. I stood there for about 4 minutes just shaking maracas. Haha!


Afterwards, I had a nap. Then I insisted we all go out to eat for Chinese New Year. We had vegetarian Chinese. My garlic soy chicken was awesome. I actually would come back to eat it! It's way better than how some chicken is cooked!
Bailey drew me as a Superhero HAHA

We went to Guppy House for dessert and we ordered this Brick Toast boat. We had about 4 of those fat brick toasts, and we could barely hammer into it. The icecream serving was huge too, and there was lots of fruits to enjoy! I was so full by the end.
American bread (apart from that brick toast for dessert) is so airy and thin, I eat this many for brekky!

I came home and practiced one of the songs for the festival this weekend. Recorded it then went to bed. We have proper rehearsals tomorrow with the full band. How daunting and exciting!

NAMM

Today I got to go to the NAMM show - which is a convention for all things music. It was pretty cool.


Homemade hamburger time with two layers of bread with CHEESE even in the middle! And we put brie cheese in the middle of the patty too!

You can't just buy tickets and go, its a private event that sponsored, workers, and artists are invited to go. I'm a nobody though - I was just lucky that Tony is sponsored by Vic Firth, Remo and Yamaha and so he pulled some strings to get me in. Hahaha!



It was a great experience! I saw Alice Cooper and Orianthi. Joe Bonamassa was gonna be in tomorrow and Colbie Calliat was yesterday!? Apparently, Alicia Keys did an appearance and so did Kiss last year or so?



Anyway, a lot of the faces I had no clue. I mean I've listened to Red Jumpsuit Apparatus before too but had no idea who the individuals were. It was about 4 levels of intense exhibition. We got to look at all the new stuff that's coming in for 2012!



I saw the new Taylor guitars, custom Gibson and Fenders that were sold for nearly 20,000 dollars and intensely carved grand pianos. It was crazy! I even saw a space ship piano LOL.


Intense double bass head stock



I didn't even know that grand pianos came in electronic styles now. Would we call it a grand keyboard? I don't know..
Never heard of George Lynch but there was a massive line for him. My eye just caught onto the same last name haha!


CRAZY

There were so many of the classic 50 year old rock men with shaved heads and long beards, or long hair and leather jackets. Hahaha! I also enjoyed a lot of the blues guitarists getting their jam on.



I even got enjoyment out of mid Western country musicians, all wearing their cowboy hats and playing banjos, violin, mandolin, double bass and resophonic slide guitars. It was really interesting!
Orianthi

Custom $6,000 Fenders special for the show! HOW PRETTY ARE THEY!


Afterwards, Tony and I went to eat sushi. I had a Sashimi bowl. I used to be able to eat squid and scallops, but at the start of last year I started realising that I developed an allergy to them - so I've added that to my seafood stay away list. It used to only be shellfish and crustaceans but its expanding. There was a white fish in the bowl, I don't know - but I think I can't eat particular types of fish either now. Makes me depressed. UNLESS, its just because they don't wash the knives or boards you know?



I've been trying to go to the grocers and make dinner these days instead of going out to eat to make my money dwindle slower. Okay, my heads feeling crazy from the allergies.

Matte black grando piano!