New Video: talking with Dallas

During my recent trip to NYC I had the privilege of linking up with the big homey DALLAS PENN of dallaspenn.com, XXLmag.com, and iNternetscelebrities.com fame. We've built in the past for various sneaker- and blog-related activities, not to mention exchanging kicks and the like, so when I was in town for about 20 hours last Tuesday, I knew I had to connect to the homey if at all possible!

We broke bread on 8th and Broadway at the famous Cozy Soup n' Burger, where we even got to spend some time talkin g with COZY'S SON, born and raised in the spot! With me moving forward in my rap career, I needed input and feedback and Dallas was quick to oblige. And you know we had to hit off the internets to say what up...

On the road 1 (New York City)

New York City.

I love this town - after around 23 hours of travel i got to my reserved hotel room (gratis, courtesy of Steve Yu) at The W on 17th st. about an hour ago, and just took a little walk around Union Square.

Not gonna lie, I'm finding myself almost intimidated by the vibe here... I always give major props to the City, but 4+ months in Beijing have left me softer than i was when i left the States.

There's millions of people here, all going hard every day - and to be honest, whatever you're trying to do - especially hiphop - will have hundreds, thousands, and even tens of thousands of other dreamers in this city. Many of whom, if not most, will have more talent, resources, luck, or marketability than you. If I'm being honest, I don't think I could make it in New York.

Not yet.

You see, this revelation isn't discouraging - in fact, it's encouraging me as I think about it. I'm truly blessed to have the situation I do: to do the music I do in the place I am, with the people I know. So what if, right now, I couldn't rise to the top in New York. This isn't my city - for now, that's Beijing. And that's where the movement is going to start. Has started.


Bonus flick:

All that, and my brother Lucas got a sweet arm piece done. Respect!

Coming to America (no Eddie Murphy)

Well, I just booked my tickets - due to a happy confluence of even happier events, I will be returning to the States earlier than expected (albeit for only about a week):

Tuesday, Nov. 2 - fly from Beijing => San Francisco => New York-JFK. Take the MTA transit line to New haven.
Nov. 3-6 - hang out at Yale
Nov. 7 - Justin's wedding in Allentown, PA.
Nov. 8 - Delaware, visiting my parents.
Nov. 9 - New York City - one more day in New Haven?
Nov. 10 - 7 AM flight out of JFK => San Francisco => Beijing.
Nov. 11 - 4 PM, arrive in Beijing.

Let's hang, people!

Harvard-Yale / Korean Food in New York

An eventful 7 days transpires in New Haven; old relationships begin anew, rivalries spill over throughout the city, and Korean food threatens to (deliciously) overwhelm a trip to New York. All on this week's episode of

American Dream, Chinese Hero.

...

Tuesday11.17.2009

After kicking it with Christian YV for a long minute, I ran into Living
Water, preparing for the Harvard-Yale jam with Harvard's Under
Construction.


Lookin, soundin like a million bucks.

Friday11.20.2009

After a 2 hour flight delay, Janice touched down into
New Haven safe & sound; To celebrate, we headed to
our old favorite spot for a familiar round of dishes.

Saturday11.21.2009

The morning of The Game dawned cool, bright, and
inspirational. Headed to the Living Water alumni
breakfast, I ran into a familiar and sorely-missed
face around campus.


The #1 JOSH I SKY!!!


What a great triad of alums.

Mel dropped by New Haven. Instead of going to The
Game (good call there...), she and I hung lazily around
my apartment, catching up on life the way we used
to during undergrad days.


Mel has been down with Bustout for a minute now.


After catching up, I walked her over to the Omni, one of New Haven's
hotels. Note that even the telephones are bougie.


!

After dinner, a group of the alums, led by my roommate,
congregated in our apartment to nurse full stomachs and, perhaps,
the traces of wounded pride (Harvard: 14; Yale: 10).


Karin, Yang, Wendo.


Amy, Ben, Victor, Josh.


Jwong and Ray!


Nancy Liang came through to reminisce with me and
give me the lowdown on her career moves... killing
em in the investment game.

Monday11.23.2009


On my way to work out in the Pierson-Davenport
gym, I passed a picture of the PC class of 2008,
including this dashing young fellow. Obviously
headed somewhere smart with his life.

That night, a small group of us congregated at
Enping's house for dinner + a movie.


Andrew and James, the very portrait of mutual
trust.


厨师 Ah Joo... gourmet dumplings.

Tuesday11.24.2009

On a sharp Tuesday morning, D.Chen and I headed into
the City to kick it with assorted NJ/NYC friends.

Hitting the city shortly before noon, we hopped on the
uptown 6 and met up with sgkim at the Met, where
we Saw Culture.




The expansive Egypt room. I was so impressed by the clear, crisp design cues,
which stood in bold contrast to the self-conscious and cluttered layout of the rest
of the museum.




What's that, Stephen?


Yes, adorable.






White = sitting on camel = Wise Man
Black = leading camel = Servant
Not cool, Culture. Mad ignorant.


Famous!


Luminous!


Artist painting art of art!


"Pertti Kekarainen
Finnish, born 1965
TILA (Passage I), 2006
Chromogenic print
...
One of the leading artists of the Helsinki school, a loosely
connected group of photographers associated with Finland's
Academy of Fine Arts, Kakarainen uses the camera to foreground
the process of perception itself. the photographs in his TILA series
are images of architectural spaces-rooms, staircases, doorways,
windows-to which he has added various optical occlusions: extra
shadows, floating spots of color, and larger veils or scrims that
sometimes nearly obscure the original image. These interruptions
in the visual field complicate the act of seeing and encourage a
heightened awareness of the tension between the flatness of the
photograph and the illusion of spatial depth. The Finnish word tila
means many things, from "space" or "place" to "circumstance"
or "state of mind." Kekarainen's gorgeously complex images
convincingly show that the photographic representation of space
is completed in the eye and mind of the viewer."




Detail of above.


Exiting the Met, we motivated our way crosstown via Central Park.


Satchel, corduroy blazer, knit wool tie - vintage
Cashmere scarf - Club Room
Glasses - Bust Out
Shirt - Uniqlo


Midtown Manhattan skyline over Central Park.


Revisiting old haunts.

Hitting 86th and Broadway, we jumped on the 1,
bound for Columbia, where Lucas was lecturing at
4 PM.


Clearly labeled. I appreciate that in a campus.


Waiting around, eating roasted nuts [||] before lecture.

Stephen departed to spend time with an old friend,
David and I sat in on Lucas' lecture, Yoonjoo arrived at
Columbia, and we all linked up for dinner in Ktown at
Kunjip.




SO EXCITED TO FOOD


Yo it is real hard to get D.chen to sit still for a photo.


Dookbaeki bulgolgi, the first time I've had it since the summer in Ilsan.


ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yo


Redmango post-dinner. By this point, my stomach was real insistent.

After we walked Yoonjoo & David to the 34th st 1 train
stop, and made an emergency detour to a certain store,
we saw a large crowd gathering in front of Macy's,
where a large section of the street was cordoned off and,
as we discovered, the site of Thanksgiving Day parade
rehearsals.


Eunju, overcome by excitement and curiosity, hopped on
the barricade to peer inquisitively at the young performers.

After saying goodbye to Eunju & sgkim, I kicked it in
Ktown with Karmen for a little longer, then motivated
my way uptown to Columbia, again, where I hung with
my man Andrew and saw Ji Eun for the first time in 4
years, since we all finished studying in 北京 together.

Super on his grind... real talk, I got to Columbia
around 10 PM, and headed to Lucas' apartment
to spend the night around 2 AM... Andrew was
working on his pset the whole time and kept on
working for hours after I left! Homeboy is really on
track to being an academic baller.

Wednesday11.25.2009

Sleeping in, I woke up in time for lunch with
Andrew & Ji Eun at the only Korean place local to
Columbia, Mill.

I wasn't hungry, having eaten about 3 meals' worth
of bulgolgi and rice the night before, but Ji Eun and
Andrew were having none of it... so they loaded me
down with Bibimbap and a couple pieces of kimbap
from Ji Eun's friend Fei Fei. Thanks guys.






After lunch, I linked up with Lucas again to talk some words for a
brief minute, then we kicked it around campus at Columbia.

Hopping on the downtown 1 around 2:30, I hit Grand Central with
2 minutes to spare for the 2:57 to New Haven.

God's timing truly >>> my own.

these happy golden days

As I lazed about my Korean apartment, preparing for the final week of my summer employment, I realized, abruptly, that I yet have, stewing at the bottom of my to-do list, forgotten in the piles of half-written blog posts and abortively discursive discourse, the last few weeks' worth of pictures from the Spring semester.

Oops.

Tuesday05.19.2009

Wherein Emily Chen and I ramble around New Haven.





The sun glared down on us so reprovingly that neither
of us could muster the indecency to gaze back,
apparently.

Yale's famed Peabody Museum - home base and patron
institution of seminal paleontologist O.C. Marsh - is one
of the few major sights around New Haven to which I
had never previously addressed myself. Finding
ourselves nearby, Emily and I had a look in.












This one was for Ray.

Wednesday05.20.2009


SBTG Dunk SB Lows.

At lunch with a friend, he mentioned his work on
the Commencement Issue of the YDN; seeing that I
had effectively skipped half of my own
Commencement Week festivities, I never had the
chance to peruse the 2008 edition. The archives of
the YDN, however, are voluminous, and easily
called-upon when a YDN staffer is at hand.

Thanks D!


Congratulations Nancy (and Max)!

Thursday05.21.2009

K and Mo were hanging out, so, you know.


Like a kangaroo.


My Tiffany Dunk SB Lows matched K's... t-shirt
apron hybrid?


Forlorn, waiting for Ben, in a cape we scavenged.


The guys and gals (and me).


Ms. Bryan dropped by Esther's room for a minute.

Then we all played: tag and hide and go seek, on Old
Campus, in the dark, crashing into rows of neatly-
arranged chairs; ultimate frisbee on Cross Campus.

Friday05.22.2009

I was in Erin, Mieka, and Lillian's room
catching up with Erin and hanging out.

This insect was HUGE.


At the time, I described it as a dragon-moth,
or perhaps a raptor hybrid. I still stick to my
description.

Saturday05.23.2009

Steve was in town, and wanted to get a haircut; Ray and
I tagged along, and Ray followed suit.




Chinese barbers ftw.

Sunday05.24.2009

Dinner with a group of the charming men and women of
Living Water (and friend).


D.Tam looking fly






Ethiopian

Sunday05.25.2009

Graduation 2009!


As I waited for the ceremonies to start, I ran into not
one, but two of my former suitemates: Charlie and
Rhasaan had shown up to join the proceedings for the
day.


Sandi and I linked up for a large amount of the day's
proceedings.


EGO86 tag, Davenport courtyard, New Haven, CT.
I hadn't even remembered this was there...


Mr. Nicholas Pierson.


Mr. Wilbur Hu


Ms. Mieka Sanderson


Mr. Lucas Kwong.


Ms. Joshu I Sky


The family Sky.

For the past few years, after each of the individual
Residential College ceremonies wrap up, a group of
graduates, alumni, and friends gather together at the
Women's Table, on the Rose Walk, for a final send-off.


Ms. Anne Lucinda Lee.


Mr. Eric Klein and Mr. Kyle Gong.


Mr. Jaeyoung Yang and Mr. Joseph Oh.

Monday05.26.2009

The day after graduation, I headed into NYC to spend
the day variously catching up with friends, having my
Korean work visa interview, and so on.

A few of the guys from the Navigators ministry at
UMass-Amherst also needed to do a visa run for their
upcoming summer missions trip to the Philippines, so
they drove into town, parked at my apartment, and
we headed out in a large mass (transit).


Mr. Joel Lee.


The scene on the train.


Tags in Manhattan.

After a quick processing time through the Korean
consulate, Emily Chen - who was also in town,
awaiting her late afternoon flight out to the West
Coast - and I met up in midtown Manhattan.


Tom Sachs' Hello Kitty installation.


Proceeding to Grand Central, we met up with Lucas


Then headed over to Yup's place. man, Yup has some amazing
clothes, and one of the best wardrobe solutions I've ever seen: if you
lack closet space, just make your entire wall your closet.

I want his room some day.




Emily: "TELL ME EVERYTHING"
Lucas and me: "?"
Emily: "AGGGH"

The three of us then motivated our way back to Grand
Central, where Yup joined us to escort Emily onto the
airport shuttle bus.






Last time I'll be seeing this girl for a couple years.

After seeing Emily and Yup off to the airport, Luke and I found
ourselves in a not-uncommon state when we're together: hungry.

We called Steve up and found that he had just finished work; so, we
decided to all head over to Koreatown and grab a fresh Korean
meal, to celebrate my heading to Korea and eating plenty of Korean
food this summer.


My homeboys.


Bibimbap... yo they did it good there.

Best of all, Ms. Taryn Nakamura had just completed
the first day of her summer internship; calling her up,
we discovered that her job site (with the Asian-
American Writers' Workshop) was literally across the
street from the restaurant at which we were located.




Banchan, with the mad taste.


Afterward, pinkberry.


Lucas, despairing of ever having his name spelled correctly at a fast
food location.
(label reads: LUCS)

Parting ways, Lucas headed up to Columbia, Taryn to
her summer sublet, and Stephen and myself to his
place in the pj's.

After kicking it with Stephen for a while, I got a text
from the UMass boys that said they were with our
boy Landon (of the NYU navigators), and headed
uptown for the night. I made haste and hit the
subway system, meeting up with them on a shady
platform around midnight. By 12:30, we were safely
ensconced in Harlem House.




Look carefully.

Tuesday05.27.2009


I try.


Got the ill flavors (Soho, NYC)

Homeboy Dallas got me linked up via twitter with his girl sooey, a
fellow young, fly, trend-setting 2nd-Generation Asian-American
intellect. Knowing that we were both in the area, I hollered at
homegirl to connect, politic, ditto.


Note Sooey has the lime nail polish...


...matching her AM95 retro's in the OG colorway.

Sister got it made.