You think you know, but you have no idea...(extra points again if you know where this is from)
Sorry about my absolutely crazy long hiatus from blogging. Life had taken an unexpected turn and I was hardpressed to find a reason to continue this blog. I won't get into the details but if you know what happened then you know what happened, if you don't then feel free to call/text/msn me and I'll let you in on the big secret. But that's not the reason for this post...the reason for this post is a very common occurrence that I've been finding more and more annoying lately. Mostly because it's happened to me, happened to people close to me and I think enough is really enough. This, of course, is the issue of people making assumptions and thinking that they know you when they really don't. I'm not about to go on a tirade about how unfair it is and whine/cry about it, but I'll get down to the meat of the issue. We ALL do this, there is not one person in the entire world that has not done this or is not guilty of this. It really comes down to human nature, we cannot possibly take the time to get to know every single person in our lives well enough, so we general, compartmentalize and form assumptions about people in order to keep them in order. Where this seemingly harmless organizing mechanism turns vile is when it is attached or partnered with an event, or emotions.
One such case is with a friend of mine that used to party a lot and go out a lot. He was not necessarily looking for trouble, looking to "score" or even looking to look at girls. BUT by virtue of him going out so much, people began to make assumptions about his character, about his integrity and about his personal life most of all. I hate to say it but most of the people who looked at him with such disdain and such condescension were Christians. Now, if you've been diligently reading my blogs and such, you'll soon discover a pattern of similar tirades. In my mind, the current church structure and attitude of the people is a divisive one, not because we mean to and not because we're mean people, but simply because we take portions of our upbringing and culture with us into our "Christian lives" and our beliefs. We are so entwined with our culture and upbringing that we mistake these feelings and views for the "Christian" way of seeing things. That is the thing which I find the most abhorrent about "contemporary Chinese Christianity" but that's for another blog post entirely. Anyway, my friend was quite put off by all the negative attention that he was getting because of his apparently "reckless" and "godless" lifestyle, when all he really did was go out with his friends and have his fun.
If we truly claim to be Christ-like in our faith, and truly claim to be followers in His likeness, then how come we cannot cease these assumptions? People assumed my friend to be a party-er who loved drunkenness, loved defiling his body and loved sex. When does it stop? These assumptions create an impression which is next to impossible to break and very often, many people are so set in their ways of thinking that even if you were to go up to them and slap them in the face with reality, they would refuse reality unflinchingly. Why is it that those who claim to be "leaders" and "helpers" and "ambassadors for Christ" cease to do what He called us, and cease to act how He did? It is all together disappointing to see how far the apple has fallen from the Tree. There is, however, an opposite of this example which I have just recently discovered. The issue of drinking and partying is a long debated subject for us Asian Christians and its been beaten to a pulp now...it's a sore topic and people don't like to talk about it. What I've recently discovered is that this assumption problems happens in the very opposite arena from drinking. People tend to form an impression of someone's maturity level based on an event and are hard-pressed to let it go so that victim will never be able to change his or her level of maturity in the eyes of the those around them.
Let me give you an example. Say a person, let's name him George, meets a new group of Christian friends at a new fellowship in his school. George quickly makes friends and fits in pretty well. Then, a month later, he finds a girlfriend and begins to fall into a very physical relationship. His "friends" form an impression about him based on this and come to the conclusion that he is an immature boy who is only focused on the physical aspects of the world. This is a confidence killer. If we claim to be the body of Christ, why can't we act in unity? Why must we create these walls and hoops for people to jump through? If people are different in terms of maturity and focus, why do we expel them from our midst with our silence, cold shoulders and even colder glances? From this impression, George cannot escape and he is not allowed to grow any further, for no matter how much he grows, no matter how much he matures, that impression will follow him around and act as a proverbial glass ceiling to him. He is cut out of the "body" and left to his own devices.
From my personal experience, many of those who enter university and go to a fellowship at a new school with new people, there is about a 50% chance that they will be accepted into the new status quo and be able to continue with their growth in the Lord in the midst of a loving community. However, there are two sides of this loving community, as much as they love, they also reject. Many people I've talked to cite a seemingly vast chasm over which they cannot jump in order to be "part of the group", they say that the people in this fellowship or cell group are too "elitist" and "distant". First impressions are killers, but long-time impressions are suffocating. So here's the challenge for you all to throw what you think you knew about people out the window since people can surprise you. Look to yourself and examine yourself before the Lord and see if it is in your right to judge someone, to assume something about someone, or to joke around about someone. I think you'll quickly realize where we all fall short even if we're reaching to be like Him.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Summer Woes and "Growin' up is not so tough, 'cept when I've had enough" (extra points if you know that this is from)
It seems like the endless cycle of me looking for a job and getting rejected continues to perpetuate itself. I'm fully determined to work or find something to do with my time this year but doors are closing all over the place. I've officially become sick of the whole "only candidates who are selected for interview will be contacted" it leaves all the poor saps like me sitting around waiting for something to happen haha. Being an adult kind of sucks, responsibilities and peer pressure to be more "adult-like" seems a little too rampant in this day and age. When your friends' idea of fun is to "go get coffee" that's when you know that you've aged beyond your fun-loving years and the coffee isn't a happy experience as it is a necessity to maintain what sanity you have left. Life slows way down during summer, especially in a university city like London. I recently went downtown (where all the clubs are) to have some dessert and realized how empty it was, it was a Saturday night and the streets weren't full of drunkies and stumbling girls in impossibly short looking skirts for such a cold night. Granted this was at 11PM and the real party times hadn't begun but it was a pretty sobering sight, not that I missed it but it was just sobering nonetheless.
I was recently reminded of a conversation I had with a good friend of mine during the waning days of the school year. It was about being a leader beyond reproach and was related to a recent event. If you know what the event is and what the situation is, keep it to yourself. I'm not here to rant about anything but rather just type out what goes on in my mind and hope that it makes sense. Anyway, I was thinking about what it meant to be "beyond reproach" and I arrived at the conclusion that although people think it's possible, I really don't believe so. To be beyond reproach means to be above blame, above fault. In Christian circles, it means that you live your life so according to the Word that people are willing to take your example in things, but this is a gross overestimation of the extent of the term "beyond reproach". Is it really possible to live so according to the Word or be so inspired by the Word that people around you can say that you are above blame and your words and actions are God-centered? Granted, the Spirit empowers and equips in all ways to do the work of God but can a simple human being really live beyond reproach? After the talk with my friend, I started thinking about the leaders who are "beyond reproach" according to the general Christian circles and made the realization that no one really was. All people can be faulted and all people can be wrong, what made these people so good?
After this, I extended this to my closer Christian circle and began to think about another recent event in mind. My participation in this event had apparently caused quite a stir with some people and led to numerous confrontations with people. It actually shocked me that this event had caused so much controversy and how many times a specific word came up, "rebuke". I'm not a stranger to rebuke, I live my life according to God and His laws along with my personal link through the Spirit to the heart of God. Before undertaking any action I pray and think about whether or not the glory of God would be upheld in this action. This specific event was okay by me, okay by God and okay in general given a few boundaries. Yet why was it that my brothers and sisters saw it okay to rebuke me so many times in the span of a week? I found myself thinking the disturbing thought of "even though we're held to a higher standard than the people of the world, why is it that the so called body of Christ so divisive in its nature?" the simple fact is that although we strive to be like the church in Acts with the unity of believers, it is not really culturally or organizationally plausible. Sure, the heart is there and many people feel that the heart is all that we need but is it? The church was borne out of a link to Jesus himself, it was like a brushfire, an upstart to a worldwide movement, it was borne out of a people who would throw away their earthly possessions for the good of the body. It's sad to think about how close we want to be with that and we still struggle with getting along with one another. This may be why people tend to fall away during the university years, not only because of the immense temptation but in a phase of life where people are searching for acceptance and an identity find themselves pushed and "bullied" (as some friends of mine have so succinctly put) by an unforgiving group of believers.
Don't get me wrong here, I'm not blaming anyone nor am I passing any judgment, but through a careful thought experiment and talking with people, this is the other side of the story. We so often hear of the great successes of the church and rarely hear of the monumental failures or the lack of responsibility on the part of brothers and sisters simply caring for one another. Here's hoping that with the Spirit's equipping that we may be given more wisdom in caring for one another. Granted love is the tie that binds our hearts and holds the body together, but wisdom to see when "rebuking in love" is called for, helps too. In my experience, despite the church's best efforts it finds that in the case of a "stray believer" (unbelievably, a term a friend of mine used) the weapon of rebuke is so often invoked without much thought as to the alternatives.
I'll close that portion of this post. I hope that I haven't offended anyone by my extremely short and closed-scoped treatise of this issue, it's just something that has been nagging at me for quite a while.
Anyway, getting back to more fun reading, I recently watched the movie "Kick Butt" (see how I did that?) and it was pretty awesome, although seeing a 12 year old girl swear that much did make me sad (but at the same time so very impressed...especially with the fact that she knew how to handle a butterfly knife) it was a mindless, fun ride and I encourage people to go out and check the movie out. On a side note, I watched Iron Man 2 and found it to be pretty lacking in comparison to the first...and who the heck created the electric-rope-man? That's all I gotta say...
It seems like the endless cycle of me looking for a job and getting rejected continues to perpetuate itself. I'm fully determined to work or find something to do with my time this year but doors are closing all over the place. I've officially become sick of the whole "only candidates who are selected for interview will be contacted" it leaves all the poor saps like me sitting around waiting for something to happen haha. Being an adult kind of sucks, responsibilities and peer pressure to be more "adult-like" seems a little too rampant in this day and age. When your friends' idea of fun is to "go get coffee" that's when you know that you've aged beyond your fun-loving years and the coffee isn't a happy experience as it is a necessity to maintain what sanity you have left. Life slows way down during summer, especially in a university city like London. I recently went downtown (where all the clubs are) to have some dessert and realized how empty it was, it was a Saturday night and the streets weren't full of drunkies and stumbling girls in impossibly short looking skirts for such a cold night. Granted this was at 11PM and the real party times hadn't begun but it was a pretty sobering sight, not that I missed it but it was just sobering nonetheless.
I was recently reminded of a conversation I had with a good friend of mine during the waning days of the school year. It was about being a leader beyond reproach and was related to a recent event. If you know what the event is and what the situation is, keep it to yourself. I'm not here to rant about anything but rather just type out what goes on in my mind and hope that it makes sense. Anyway, I was thinking about what it meant to be "beyond reproach" and I arrived at the conclusion that although people think it's possible, I really don't believe so. To be beyond reproach means to be above blame, above fault. In Christian circles, it means that you live your life so according to the Word that people are willing to take your example in things, but this is a gross overestimation of the extent of the term "beyond reproach". Is it really possible to live so according to the Word or be so inspired by the Word that people around you can say that you are above blame and your words and actions are God-centered? Granted, the Spirit empowers and equips in all ways to do the work of God but can a simple human being really live beyond reproach? After the talk with my friend, I started thinking about the leaders who are "beyond reproach" according to the general Christian circles and made the realization that no one really was. All people can be faulted and all people can be wrong, what made these people so good?
After this, I extended this to my closer Christian circle and began to think about another recent event in mind. My participation in this event had apparently caused quite a stir with some people and led to numerous confrontations with people. It actually shocked me that this event had caused so much controversy and how many times a specific word came up, "rebuke". I'm not a stranger to rebuke, I live my life according to God and His laws along with my personal link through the Spirit to the heart of God. Before undertaking any action I pray and think about whether or not the glory of God would be upheld in this action. This specific event was okay by me, okay by God and okay in general given a few boundaries. Yet why was it that my brothers and sisters saw it okay to rebuke me so many times in the span of a week? I found myself thinking the disturbing thought of "even though we're held to a higher standard than the people of the world, why is it that the so called body of Christ so divisive in its nature?" the simple fact is that although we strive to be like the church in Acts with the unity of believers, it is not really culturally or organizationally plausible. Sure, the heart is there and many people feel that the heart is all that we need but is it? The church was borne out of a link to Jesus himself, it was like a brushfire, an upstart to a worldwide movement, it was borne out of a people who would throw away their earthly possessions for the good of the body. It's sad to think about how close we want to be with that and we still struggle with getting along with one another. This may be why people tend to fall away during the university years, not only because of the immense temptation but in a phase of life where people are searching for acceptance and an identity find themselves pushed and "bullied" (as some friends of mine have so succinctly put) by an unforgiving group of believers.
Don't get me wrong here, I'm not blaming anyone nor am I passing any judgment, but through a careful thought experiment and talking with people, this is the other side of the story. We so often hear of the great successes of the church and rarely hear of the monumental failures or the lack of responsibility on the part of brothers and sisters simply caring for one another. Here's hoping that with the Spirit's equipping that we may be given more wisdom in caring for one another. Granted love is the tie that binds our hearts and holds the body together, but wisdom to see when "rebuking in love" is called for, helps too. In my experience, despite the church's best efforts it finds that in the case of a "stray believer" (unbelievably, a term a friend of mine used) the weapon of rebuke is so often invoked without much thought as to the alternatives.
I'll close that portion of this post. I hope that I haven't offended anyone by my extremely short and closed-scoped treatise of this issue, it's just something that has been nagging at me for quite a while.
Anyway, getting back to more fun reading, I recently watched the movie "Kick Butt" (see how I did that?) and it was pretty awesome, although seeing a 12 year old girl swear that much did make me sad (but at the same time so very impressed...especially with the fact that she knew how to handle a butterfly knife) it was a mindless, fun ride and I encourage people to go out and check the movie out. On a side note, I watched Iron Man 2 and found it to be pretty lacking in comparison to the first...and who the heck created the electric-rope-man? That's all I gotta say...
Friday, April 30, 2010
Life's Guu'd
Wow. Let me preface this post by saying that there is nothing better than having your previous high point in life pushed higher and higher. New experiences are the essence of life and tonight was probably one of the greatest restaurant experiences of my life. What's so good about it? For once in my life, I feel as if I may run out of words. Tonight, I had the privilege of going to dinner with my girlfriend for our third year anniversary. We had multiple ideas about where to go and what to do, originally I had planned a C.N. Tower dinner with a old-school carriage ride around the downtown area but that had fallen through at last minute...losing a substantial deposit. Anyway, we had re-planned our festivities until the next time we saw each other so finally we got to celebrate. According to Karen's friends, there was this new Japanese cuisine (not sushi but actual Japanese food) restaurant in town that had been causing quite the buzz, it's called Guu Izakaya. So, we decide to head down there and try it out. It sits in downtown Toronto and looks pretty good in terms of curb appeal, its got a nice sign and pretty good exterior detailing...kind of looks like a club.
Anyway, as we turn the corner to walk up to the restaurant, we notice people standing outside...not just a few, but a whole line-up's worth of people. We stood at the end of the line for a couple minutes before I decided to walk up to the front of the line to see how long it would take to get a table. I walked into the restaurant and BAM! I was hit by something I've never seen before...the restaurant was alive with people walking around, Japanese chefs and waiters cheering loudly and speaking in unison, it was like a party. I quickly put my name down on the list and proceeded to head back outside. This was around 8PM and we were told that we'd have to wait until about 9-9:30 before being seated. We had traveled this far (Markham to downtown) and weren't going to be turned away by some waiting. So we sat around...watched the sunset and sat around in the cold for a while. 9 came and went, 9:30 also came and went...and finally after 2 hours of waiting, at 10PM we were able to go in. Suffice it to say, at this point I was pretty irked and was extremely critical of everything related to this restaurant, I made myself the deal that I would definitely critique the heck out of the food to get my revenge on the place for making me wait for so long.
This thought lasted for all of the three seconds it took me to walk into the restaurant. As soon as we walked through the doors, we heard something in Japanese and suddenly all the servers and chefs stopped what they were doing, looked at us walking in and cheered. They literally clapped, hollered and yelled saying "Welcome" in Japanese all the while; what made this even better was that the other people in the restaurant were also cheering and clapping for us. A smile plastered itself stupidly on my face as we got two seats in front of the "bar" where we could see the four or five chefs working away. The atmosphere was like a big party, there was fast-paced music playing and everytime a dish came out from the chefs they would say "Salmon....3!" indicating what dish it was and how much of it there was (this was all in Japanese, there were few workers there that spoke fluent English) and all the workers around them would repeat what was called out. This made the atmosphere extremely lively and fun to be in as Karen and I had big smiles on our faces the entire time. After the excitement, it was down to ordering, in order to do the dishes justice, Karen has posted the pictures up on facebook of each dish that we had and I will try my best to describe every facet of the dish. So follow me on the Guu-train!
Miso Soup - So you'd think that once you've had miso soup once, you've had all that you need to have of it right? Wrong, son. This miso soup was hands down AMAZING. It was a special type of ACTUAL miso, the soup was a dark brown. Once you brought the soup up to your mouth to drink, you smelled the strong miso and once drinking, the full flavour enveloped your mouth and sinuses. It was amazing, simply stunning for such a simple and common dish to be done so perfectly. Well worth the $2.50 for the single bowl.
Sashimi Salad - This is probably the best dish of the night. Picture three types of sashimi: pepper-crusted salmon, tuna and scallop. These three were served on a bed of Japanese green salad, grated daikon radish and other greens. There's very little I can say...the sashimi melts in your mouth and coupled with the crunchy greens forms a great contrast. A light Japanese vinegar dressing is lightly drizzled on top. I basically ended my criticism here.
Gyu Carpaccio - This is basically kobe beef tartare. Kobe beef sashimi, also pepper crusted with a wasabi sauce drizzled on top of it...These 5 pieces were topped with roasted garlic. Wow. The beef was every bit juicy, tastefully done and melted perfectly in your mouth.
Takoyaki - Squid balls deep-fried and topped with wasabi mayo. With seaweed on top and a ginger/cinnamon sauce. The pieces were soft and held the wasabi mayo beautifully, there was a slight crispiness on the outside which was accented by the crunch of the seaweed placed on top.
Butakimchi BiBimBap - We decided to be less Japanese with this one. The first time I've ever had BiBimBap but certainly not the last. Each grain of rice was perfectly cooked, the sauces, vegetables were perfectly cooked and coated with a sweet kimchi sauce.
Aburi Salmon - This was a work of art. Sashimi of Atlantic salmon that was pepper-crusted on the outside. There was literally no fishy-flavour in these pieces, they were topped with toasted garlic and drizzled with a light Tonkatsu sauce. The delicate pieces of fish were accented by these light sauces. It felt like you were eating a perfectly balanced bite-sized portion of heaven. The heavy sauces contrasted with the lightness of the fish. Holy crap, I think I love this place.
Kakimayo (Oysters) - Two oysters that were baked with mushrooms and cheese. Not much to say here, it was accompanied by a green sauce that tasted like pesto. Kind of. I usually gag on oysters but I happily ate this without a single word....that should be proof enough.
Kimchi Udon - This is a crazy dish. I thought that it would come in a soup but no! It was boiled udon tossed in miso and a light sweet sauce and topped with kimchi. My mind actually exploded when this entered my mouth. Every single bit of the udon was flavourful, lightly touched with the taste of miso and the sweet sauce. Usually when preparing or eating udon, the flavour depends on the sauce since the actual noodles themselves have no real flavour. In this case, the flavour from the udon added flavour to everything else. The pickled taste from the kimchi sat perfectly in contrast with the soft sweetness of the udon. Beautiful.
Banana Tempura - For those of you who have been to Conception Sushi and claim their banana tempura to be so good...you have not known banana tempura until you eat this. Lightly battered so that the tempura adds a crisp texture before sinking into a perfectly ripened banana. This topped with a mango-chocolate sauce and served with REAL coconut ice cream. Dang it...we ate this so fast that we forgot to take a picture of it until there was nothing left.
Almond Tofu - It came in a small tea cup. The amazing thing about this is that it's a simple white tofu and wipes your whole pallete clean. It's creamy and lightly touched with almond flavour...simply gorgeous and velvety.
After the meal (which happily came in under $100, but not by much) we were treated to four frozen sugar-ed grapes. As we were walking out of the restaurant, we were cheered for again and thanked by the whole staff before we were allowed to leave. It was amazing, we truly felt like VIPs. That place was amazing and I'll never look at sushi, Japanese food and Japanese restaurants the same ever again. Even thinking back to the first time that I went to Conception sushi, what I thought was amazing is nothing more than mediocre in the face of this amazing place. I don't think all-you-can-eat sushi will ever do me justice ever again...Once you go Guu, you can never return to the old you.
Check my facebook pictures for the food and atmosphere from tonight and I hope that all of you can go Guu one day. Like the receipt said...Be Careful...Guu-ing is addictive!
Wow. Let me preface this post by saying that there is nothing better than having your previous high point in life pushed higher and higher. New experiences are the essence of life and tonight was probably one of the greatest restaurant experiences of my life. What's so good about it? For once in my life, I feel as if I may run out of words. Tonight, I had the privilege of going to dinner with my girlfriend for our third year anniversary. We had multiple ideas about where to go and what to do, originally I had planned a C.N. Tower dinner with a old-school carriage ride around the downtown area but that had fallen through at last minute...losing a substantial deposit. Anyway, we had re-planned our festivities until the next time we saw each other so finally we got to celebrate. According to Karen's friends, there was this new Japanese cuisine (not sushi but actual Japanese food) restaurant in town that had been causing quite the buzz, it's called Guu Izakaya. So, we decide to head down there and try it out. It sits in downtown Toronto and looks pretty good in terms of curb appeal, its got a nice sign and pretty good exterior detailing...kind of looks like a club.
Anyway, as we turn the corner to walk up to the restaurant, we notice people standing outside...not just a few, but a whole line-up's worth of people. We stood at the end of the line for a couple minutes before I decided to walk up to the front of the line to see how long it would take to get a table. I walked into the restaurant and BAM! I was hit by something I've never seen before...the restaurant was alive with people walking around, Japanese chefs and waiters cheering loudly and speaking in unison, it was like a party. I quickly put my name down on the list and proceeded to head back outside. This was around 8PM and we were told that we'd have to wait until about 9-9:30 before being seated. We had traveled this far (Markham to downtown) and weren't going to be turned away by some waiting. So we sat around...watched the sunset and sat around in the cold for a while. 9 came and went, 9:30 also came and went...and finally after 2 hours of waiting, at 10PM we were able to go in. Suffice it to say, at this point I was pretty irked and was extremely critical of everything related to this restaurant, I made myself the deal that I would definitely critique the heck out of the food to get my revenge on the place for making me wait for so long.
This thought lasted for all of the three seconds it took me to walk into the restaurant. As soon as we walked through the doors, we heard something in Japanese and suddenly all the servers and chefs stopped what they were doing, looked at us walking in and cheered. They literally clapped, hollered and yelled saying "Welcome" in Japanese all the while; what made this even better was that the other people in the restaurant were also cheering and clapping for us. A smile plastered itself stupidly on my face as we got two seats in front of the "bar" where we could see the four or five chefs working away. The atmosphere was like a big party, there was fast-paced music playing and everytime a dish came out from the chefs they would say "Salmon....3!" indicating what dish it was and how much of it there was (this was all in Japanese, there were few workers there that spoke fluent English) and all the workers around them would repeat what was called out. This made the atmosphere extremely lively and fun to be in as Karen and I had big smiles on our faces the entire time. After the excitement, it was down to ordering, in order to do the dishes justice, Karen has posted the pictures up on facebook of each dish that we had and I will try my best to describe every facet of the dish. So follow me on the Guu-train!
Miso Soup - So you'd think that once you've had miso soup once, you've had all that you need to have of it right? Wrong, son. This miso soup was hands down AMAZING. It was a special type of ACTUAL miso, the soup was a dark brown. Once you brought the soup up to your mouth to drink, you smelled the strong miso and once drinking, the full flavour enveloped your mouth and sinuses. It was amazing, simply stunning for such a simple and common dish to be done so perfectly. Well worth the $2.50 for the single bowl.
Sashimi Salad - This is probably the best dish of the night. Picture three types of sashimi: pepper-crusted salmon, tuna and scallop. These three were served on a bed of Japanese green salad, grated daikon radish and other greens. There's very little I can say...the sashimi melts in your mouth and coupled with the crunchy greens forms a great contrast. A light Japanese vinegar dressing is lightly drizzled on top. I basically ended my criticism here.
Gyu Carpaccio - This is basically kobe beef tartare. Kobe beef sashimi, also pepper crusted with a wasabi sauce drizzled on top of it...These 5 pieces were topped with roasted garlic. Wow. The beef was every bit juicy, tastefully done and melted perfectly in your mouth.
Takoyaki - Squid balls deep-fried and topped with wasabi mayo. With seaweed on top and a ginger/cinnamon sauce. The pieces were soft and held the wasabi mayo beautifully, there was a slight crispiness on the outside which was accented by the crunch of the seaweed placed on top.
Butakimchi BiBimBap - We decided to be less Japanese with this one. The first time I've ever had BiBimBap but certainly not the last. Each grain of rice was perfectly cooked, the sauces, vegetables were perfectly cooked and coated with a sweet kimchi sauce.
Aburi Salmon - This was a work of art. Sashimi of Atlantic salmon that was pepper-crusted on the outside. There was literally no fishy-flavour in these pieces, they were topped with toasted garlic and drizzled with a light Tonkatsu sauce. The delicate pieces of fish were accented by these light sauces. It felt like you were eating a perfectly balanced bite-sized portion of heaven. The heavy sauces contrasted with the lightness of the fish. Holy crap, I think I love this place.
Kakimayo (Oysters) - Two oysters that were baked with mushrooms and cheese. Not much to say here, it was accompanied by a green sauce that tasted like pesto. Kind of. I usually gag on oysters but I happily ate this without a single word....that should be proof enough.
Kimchi Udon - This is a crazy dish. I thought that it would come in a soup but no! It was boiled udon tossed in miso and a light sweet sauce and topped with kimchi. My mind actually exploded when this entered my mouth. Every single bit of the udon was flavourful, lightly touched with the taste of miso and the sweet sauce. Usually when preparing or eating udon, the flavour depends on the sauce since the actual noodles themselves have no real flavour. In this case, the flavour from the udon added flavour to everything else. The pickled taste from the kimchi sat perfectly in contrast with the soft sweetness of the udon. Beautiful.
Banana Tempura - For those of you who have been to Conception Sushi and claim their banana tempura to be so good...you have not known banana tempura until you eat this. Lightly battered so that the tempura adds a crisp texture before sinking into a perfectly ripened banana. This topped with a mango-chocolate sauce and served with REAL coconut ice cream. Dang it...we ate this so fast that we forgot to take a picture of it until there was nothing left.
Almond Tofu - It came in a small tea cup. The amazing thing about this is that it's a simple white tofu and wipes your whole pallete clean. It's creamy and lightly touched with almond flavour...simply gorgeous and velvety.
After the meal (which happily came in under $100, but not by much) we were treated to four frozen sugar-ed grapes. As we were walking out of the restaurant, we were cheered for again and thanked by the whole staff before we were allowed to leave. It was amazing, we truly felt like VIPs. That place was amazing and I'll never look at sushi, Japanese food and Japanese restaurants the same ever again. Even thinking back to the first time that I went to Conception sushi, what I thought was amazing is nothing more than mediocre in the face of this amazing place. I don't think all-you-can-eat sushi will ever do me justice ever again...Once you go Guu, you can never return to the old you.
Check my facebook pictures for the food and atmosphere from tonight and I hope that all of you can go Guu one day. Like the receipt said...Be Careful...Guu-ing is addictive!
Monday, April 26, 2010
How is this new?
So, recently I went to go see How to Train Your Dragon in glorious 3D. The movie was hilarious, and the animations were pretty spot on in terms of nailing human interactive features and mimicking real movements. Not much in terms of the actual story, another boy-finds-a-friend-but-no-one-understands flick, except with dragons. Awesome, awesome dragons. As I watched the movie, I didn't really notice the 3D at all, there were a few shots here and there with the background being further "in" and foreground objects being a little closer. The only part of the movie that really utilized the 3D, in my opinion, was literally a 10 second span of the movie. I won't ruin it for any of you but essentially in the scene, its the aftermath of a fight and there's ash particles in the air, the particles moved out of the background and actually looked like you were able to reach out and touch them. Pretty intense stuff and I thought it was the best use of the technology yet. So after the movie I got to thinking about the 3D-movie craze and why it happened the way it did, Avatar, most Pixar movies, everyone seems to be jumping onto the 3D bandwagon to make as much money as possible before this fad craps out, and yes it WILL crap out. Don't pay much attention to "the way of the future" advertisements, 3D TVs coming out, etc. I, for one, doubt that this will last too long.
Anyway, like I said, I was in thinking mode and pondered the recent trend that had popped out of the past. The technology of 3D isn't new at all, actually, 3D movies were in form in the late 1800's (wild eh?) back then it was used sparingly since the technology to make these movies was extremely expensive. Then after a time, it made a resurgence during the 1950s where you see all those funky red-cyan paper-cut-out type glasses, audiences were amazed and it was claimed that "this was the way of the future" and by some date previous to the 2000s that there would be life-sized people transmitted into your home for entertainment. Clearly, this wasn't the case. It wasn't until a standardized format (and subsequent cost savings due to the larger budgets of the movie companies and cheaper technology costs) came along that 3D movies were once again being made part of the mainstream media.
Don't get me wrong, I think the technology is amusing, but I highly doubt that it really adds anything to the movie except for maybe some nausea here and there. It's not like things really pop out of the screen continuously (unless you're watching one of those theme-park ones where that's all they aim for), the movie has to run like a normal movie and a full length feature movie that exists just for poking you in the eye the entire time just doesn't seem very feasible. Would you pay $15 to have some computer generated character stab you in the face? As for being the way of the future, I don't see it, the trend is a trend and the novelty of it will eventually wear away in the face of something better. I kind of equate it to HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray discs, the battle between the two went on for a while with Blu-Ray eventually winning out because of its superior specs, quality and general product characteristics. Likewise, in the face of "true HD" movies and TVs, 3DTV seems like the goofy cousin of an otherwise upstanding family. It just doesn't fit in, once you get over the novelty, all you have is a pair of glasses and a screen that doesn't play anything you can see unless you have those glasses on.
3D in movies is even worse. I'm a fairly critical movie-goer and I enjoy movies with a great deal of substance in story-telling and not a fan of movies that scrape by with appeals to masses like explosion upon explosion, overuse of sexual content or an unoriginal screenplay. Two movies immediately come to mind, Transformers 2 and Avatar. For those of you that liked these movies, good for you, you're entitled to what you like, if you're easily offended then you may want to stop reading here. Anyway, these movies were pretty terrible in my opinion. Not only was it pretty brain-numbing in terms of story and character development, the overuse of effects was a little much. For T2, it was like watching a highlight reel of fantastic explosions with cuts of random talking in the middle. This movie gave the term "action movie" a whole new meaning with the operative word being "Action" and the secondary term "movie" lagging far, far behind. But that's not the main concern of this post, the main concern would be Avatar.
This movie was sheer genius on the part of James Cameron, he took a long-dead technology that didn't add much value to the film, a should-have-been-dead idea for a film, added them together and fed it to the waiting masses. And the masses ate it up. The work was minimal, the idea was novel and the customers had pretty low standards. The movie actually made me pretty irate, the 3D effects that were touted to be so awesome left me in want. All in all, it was a pretty dismal experience. I think that 3D technology in movies should be left as something that enhances an already solid plot and storyline, not the end in and of itself, the movie industry is pretty much clean out of new and good ideas and it's just sad to see this happen as well. Avatar as a breakthrough in cinematic history? I really, really think not.
If you want to see a video that kind of sums up what I mean, check this out, it's pretty funny and makes you think!
So, recently I went to go see How to Train Your Dragon in glorious 3D. The movie was hilarious, and the animations were pretty spot on in terms of nailing human interactive features and mimicking real movements. Not much in terms of the actual story, another boy-finds-a-friend-but-no-one-understands flick, except with dragons. Awesome, awesome dragons. As I watched the movie, I didn't really notice the 3D at all, there were a few shots here and there with the background being further "in" and foreground objects being a little closer. The only part of the movie that really utilized the 3D, in my opinion, was literally a 10 second span of the movie. I won't ruin it for any of you but essentially in the scene, its the aftermath of a fight and there's ash particles in the air, the particles moved out of the background and actually looked like you were able to reach out and touch them. Pretty intense stuff and I thought it was the best use of the technology yet. So after the movie I got to thinking about the 3D-movie craze and why it happened the way it did, Avatar, most Pixar movies, everyone seems to be jumping onto the 3D bandwagon to make as much money as possible before this fad craps out, and yes it WILL crap out. Don't pay much attention to "the way of the future" advertisements, 3D TVs coming out, etc. I, for one, doubt that this will last too long.
Anyway, like I said, I was in thinking mode and pondered the recent trend that had popped out of the past. The technology of 3D isn't new at all, actually, 3D movies were in form in the late 1800's (wild eh?) back then it was used sparingly since the technology to make these movies was extremely expensive. Then after a time, it made a resurgence during the 1950s where you see all those funky red-cyan paper-cut-out type glasses, audiences were amazed and it was claimed that "this was the way of the future" and by some date previous to the 2000s that there would be life-sized people transmitted into your home for entertainment. Clearly, this wasn't the case. It wasn't until a standardized format (and subsequent cost savings due to the larger budgets of the movie companies and cheaper technology costs) came along that 3D movies were once again being made part of the mainstream media.
Don't get me wrong, I think the technology is amusing, but I highly doubt that it really adds anything to the movie except for maybe some nausea here and there. It's not like things really pop out of the screen continuously (unless you're watching one of those theme-park ones where that's all they aim for), the movie has to run like a normal movie and a full length feature movie that exists just for poking you in the eye the entire time just doesn't seem very feasible. Would you pay $15 to have some computer generated character stab you in the face? As for being the way of the future, I don't see it, the trend is a trend and the novelty of it will eventually wear away in the face of something better. I kind of equate it to HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray discs, the battle between the two went on for a while with Blu-Ray eventually winning out because of its superior specs, quality and general product characteristics. Likewise, in the face of "true HD" movies and TVs, 3DTV seems like the goofy cousin of an otherwise upstanding family. It just doesn't fit in, once you get over the novelty, all you have is a pair of glasses and a screen that doesn't play anything you can see unless you have those glasses on.
3D in movies is even worse. I'm a fairly critical movie-goer and I enjoy movies with a great deal of substance in story-telling and not a fan of movies that scrape by with appeals to masses like explosion upon explosion, overuse of sexual content or an unoriginal screenplay. Two movies immediately come to mind, Transformers 2 and Avatar. For those of you that liked these movies, good for you, you're entitled to what you like, if you're easily offended then you may want to stop reading here. Anyway, these movies were pretty terrible in my opinion. Not only was it pretty brain-numbing in terms of story and character development, the overuse of effects was a little much. For T2, it was like watching a highlight reel of fantastic explosions with cuts of random talking in the middle. This movie gave the term "action movie" a whole new meaning with the operative word being "Action" and the secondary term "movie" lagging far, far behind. But that's not the main concern of this post, the main concern would be Avatar.
This movie was sheer genius on the part of James Cameron, he took a long-dead technology that didn't add much value to the film, a should-have-been-dead idea for a film, added them together and fed it to the waiting masses. And the masses ate it up. The work was minimal, the idea was novel and the customers had pretty low standards. The movie actually made me pretty irate, the 3D effects that were touted to be so awesome left me in want. All in all, it was a pretty dismal experience. I think that 3D technology in movies should be left as something that enhances an already solid plot and storyline, not the end in and of itself, the movie industry is pretty much clean out of new and good ideas and it's just sad to see this happen as well. Avatar as a breakthrough in cinematic history? I really, really think not.
If you want to see a video that kind of sums up what I mean, check this out, it's pretty funny and makes you think!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Brand Dependency and You
It seems that no matter where we go, we're bombarded with brands. There's literally a brand for everything from alphabet soup to zebra-printed furniture. Why is this the case? Why are brands so prevalent? What IS a brand and how can we possibly wean ourselves off of this addiction? This post will most likely be a little more educational than funny but it's designed to have you really re-think whether or not you're a brand loyal person, or a brand slave. I'm not about to go and bash branding and say that we should all be self-sufficient and make our own clothes, food, and video games (but imagine if we did...that'd be awesome) but I really hope that SOME of you will read this and look at little deeper into what really makes the world tick. I think I lost a lot of readership already by this point, but for those of you who are still reading and aren't back to studying or doing whatever you were doing, follow me and we'll see how far the rabbit hole really goes (omg, I've always wanted to say that in a contextually correct setting).
What is a brand? Simply put, a brand is everything intangible and marketable of a product or organization. It doesn't simply constitute the trademark, the logo, the product itself, but it's all of these things. That's one of the reasons why the world is so dominated by brands, it constitutes so much. Think about it for a second, the last time someone recommended a movie, clothing, restaurant, these constitute active branding. When someone says something to you in recommendation, that's a clear indication that whatever marketing plan worked on them and now hopes to work itself on you. There's a reason why organizations and firms spend millions of dollars on marketing plans and commissions to marketing firms to make commercials/viral marketing ads.
How do brands get to us though? Brands are literally fed to us, there is literally no time in our lives that we are not in interaction with a brand, affected by a brand or being fed brand-preferential material. Think about all the social media such as MySpace, Facebook or Twitter, these are brands in and of themselves. Each site has its own type of product and promotion strategy, MySpace focused in on certain demographics, Facebook took all forms of communication and amalgamated them into one go-to site, and Twitter is for all those attention-hungry people who post about whatever is going on around them (wait, isn't that what I'm doing?) Brands are fed to us through the traditional means like commercials, banner ads, word of mouth, etc. And we're all fairly aware of these forms of advertising, so much so that we are openly able to say that by some point we're desensitized to it and they no longer hold any control over us. Haha. Really?
Recently, brands have been going all out in finding new ways to get people to listen to their message, watch their commercials, interact with them in some way. Now is the age of social media, internet overusage, viral videos and free media. The brand giants haven't let these trends go unnoticed. Youtube is one of the biggest video sites in the world and recently (after its acquisition by Google) its been going nuts with advertising. In most viral videos, there is a brand behind it pushing the video and slowly the brand is built up in your mind without you even knowing it.
Blackberry has been known to employ one of the most grassroots marketing campaigns ever. There are few straight up advertisements, few commercials and even fewer flyers/newspaper ads. Here's what they did, they linked with all forms of social media. Youtube, facebook, myspace, twitter, email, instant messaging. All that in one phone. Then, they branded the way in which they did it (Facebook status updates from a Blackberry have "sent from my blackberry", same with email, etc) So when people see this, they say "oh golly, that's convenient, I want that." and there it is, the marketing message has been delivered.
Don't believe me? Blackberry, if they hadn't done this, would have gone the way of Palm (remember the Palm pilot?). What was the difference? Social media.
So now that we know HOW they get to us (by any means possible, including logging what you do on the internet and how often you do these things) why are we so inclined to follow them?
The answer is simple. Humans are like lemmings, we follow to our own demise and laugh happily as we're doing so. As soon as someone has something cool, we all want it. That's how sales are improved through basic marketing principles. Marketing itself is just a euphemism for creating a need that few people have, making a product for it and making them want it. Synthesizing demand. Now how do they get this demand? Through trendsetters, firms actually give trendsetters free stuff so that they will be seen with products and create demand. This works best in women's aesthetics markets. Purses, shoes, clothes, accessories, you name it and its been trended. Coach is the same as any other bag, it's just marketed differently. LV is the same as the old patent leather purse my mom has in her closet, except that it's not LV. It really confuses me how people continuously go out and spend hundreds of dollars on "high quality" products when in reality, the difference isn't that big.
The big problem with this generation is the "need to seem", the need to seem rich, happy, well-off, content with life. All these things lead to surrounding ourselves with expensive things, stylish things, all for the name of this common principle. The people who have this the worst are called "brand slaves", otherwise known as people that can be trusted to always buy the same brands or "safe sales", sales that don't need to be enhanced by marketing spending. No matter what type of product comes from a certain organization, these people will always buy it because they believe their brand to be better, hotter, more modern, more chic (etc etc). A great example of this is Apple. I won't bash but those of you who know me, know how I feel.
In the end it comes down to knowing about these marketing strategies and choosing if you really want to succumb to it. There are people who prefer brands (that's really okay, we all have preferences), and there are brand aware (people who know of them but don't do much or don't change their buying habits accordingly) and brand slaves. Where do you fit in?
It seems that no matter where we go, we're bombarded with brands. There's literally a brand for everything from alphabet soup to zebra-printed furniture. Why is this the case? Why are brands so prevalent? What IS a brand and how can we possibly wean ourselves off of this addiction? This post will most likely be a little more educational than funny but it's designed to have you really re-think whether or not you're a brand loyal person, or a brand slave. I'm not about to go and bash branding and say that we should all be self-sufficient and make our own clothes, food, and video games (but imagine if we did...that'd be awesome) but I really hope that SOME of you will read this and look at little deeper into what really makes the world tick. I think I lost a lot of readership already by this point, but for those of you who are still reading and aren't back to studying or doing whatever you were doing, follow me and we'll see how far the rabbit hole really goes (omg, I've always wanted to say that in a contextually correct setting).
What is a brand? Simply put, a brand is everything intangible and marketable of a product or organization. It doesn't simply constitute the trademark, the logo, the product itself, but it's all of these things. That's one of the reasons why the world is so dominated by brands, it constitutes so much. Think about it for a second, the last time someone recommended a movie, clothing, restaurant, these constitute active branding. When someone says something to you in recommendation, that's a clear indication that whatever marketing plan worked on them and now hopes to work itself on you. There's a reason why organizations and firms spend millions of dollars on marketing plans and commissions to marketing firms to make commercials/viral marketing ads.
How do brands get to us though? Brands are literally fed to us, there is literally no time in our lives that we are not in interaction with a brand, affected by a brand or being fed brand-preferential material. Think about all the social media such as MySpace, Facebook or Twitter, these are brands in and of themselves. Each site has its own type of product and promotion strategy, MySpace focused in on certain demographics, Facebook took all forms of communication and amalgamated them into one go-to site, and Twitter is for all those attention-hungry people who post about whatever is going on around them (wait, isn't that what I'm doing?) Brands are fed to us through the traditional means like commercials, banner ads, word of mouth, etc. And we're all fairly aware of these forms of advertising, so much so that we are openly able to say that by some point we're desensitized to it and they no longer hold any control over us. Haha. Really?
Recently, brands have been going all out in finding new ways to get people to listen to their message, watch their commercials, interact with them in some way. Now is the age of social media, internet overusage, viral videos and free media. The brand giants haven't let these trends go unnoticed. Youtube is one of the biggest video sites in the world and recently (after its acquisition by Google) its been going nuts with advertising. In most viral videos, there is a brand behind it pushing the video and slowly the brand is built up in your mind without you even knowing it.
Blackberry has been known to employ one of the most grassroots marketing campaigns ever. There are few straight up advertisements, few commercials and even fewer flyers/newspaper ads. Here's what they did, they linked with all forms of social media. Youtube, facebook, myspace, twitter, email, instant messaging. All that in one phone. Then, they branded the way in which they did it (Facebook status updates from a Blackberry have "sent from my blackberry", same with email, etc) So when people see this, they say "oh golly, that's convenient, I want that." and there it is, the marketing message has been delivered.
Don't believe me? Blackberry, if they hadn't done this, would have gone the way of Palm (remember the Palm pilot?). What was the difference? Social media.
So now that we know HOW they get to us (by any means possible, including logging what you do on the internet and how often you do these things) why are we so inclined to follow them?
The answer is simple. Humans are like lemmings, we follow to our own demise and laugh happily as we're doing so. As soon as someone has something cool, we all want it. That's how sales are improved through basic marketing principles. Marketing itself is just a euphemism for creating a need that few people have, making a product for it and making them want it. Synthesizing demand. Now how do they get this demand? Through trendsetters, firms actually give trendsetters free stuff so that they will be seen with products and create demand. This works best in women's aesthetics markets. Purses, shoes, clothes, accessories, you name it and its been trended. Coach is the same as any other bag, it's just marketed differently. LV is the same as the old patent leather purse my mom has in her closet, except that it's not LV. It really confuses me how people continuously go out and spend hundreds of dollars on "high quality" products when in reality, the difference isn't that big.
The big problem with this generation is the "need to seem", the need to seem rich, happy, well-off, content with life. All these things lead to surrounding ourselves with expensive things, stylish things, all for the name of this common principle. The people who have this the worst are called "brand slaves", otherwise known as people that can be trusted to always buy the same brands or "safe sales", sales that don't need to be enhanced by marketing spending. No matter what type of product comes from a certain organization, these people will always buy it because they believe their brand to be better, hotter, more modern, more chic (etc etc). A great example of this is Apple. I won't bash but those of you who know me, know how I feel.
In the end it comes down to knowing about these marketing strategies and choosing if you really want to succumb to it. There are people who prefer brands (that's really okay, we all have preferences), and there are brand aware (people who know of them but don't do much or don't change their buying habits accordingly) and brand slaves. Where do you fit in?
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Asian Soap Fun!
[WARNING! LONG POST AHEAD!]
So, like I said in a previous post, I was going to post about how Asian soap operas are basically all the same story, same characters, same premise just in different circumstances. Don't believe me? Sort of believe me but too apathetic? Agree with me? Well, whatever category you're in, you're going to read on anyway! I was recently watching some Chinese soap operas with my family, the story was that there was a bunch of rich people in modern day Hong Kong, there were a lot of internal struggles with drugs, money, sex...blah blah blah. Universal themes right? Well, it reminded me a lot of another Chinese drama involving a bunch of rich people in old-school Guangzhou (think Hong Kong but on the mainland) there was also a lot of internal struggles with the family dealing with money, sex, and drugs. Oh wait...How am I watching the same thing again and again and not really knowing? So I proceeded to write down a list of universal traits that can be found in all Chinese dramas, hilariously, they fit with every drama ever made (TVB, at least)
So then I thought, perhaps this extends past the realm of just Hong Kong and the Mainland (refuse to call it China). So, being the person with all the free time that I am, I decided to check out some Taiwanese dramas (Meteor Garden, etc...) and YES, it fit as well. You know what else? It fits with Korean dramas, Japanese dramas...so without further ado, I present the non-exhaustive list of Asian soap opera must-haves!
1) Death: There must, in all circumstances be a death of a family member (whether immediate or randomly somewhere off in the world) that has a major impact upon at least one character. This death will spin the drama into some weird uncomfortable scene with a funeral and lots of crying and some sad violin music taken from a soundtrack to some cheesy movie.
1a) Optional add-in: someone that was previously not a friend of the family will show up to the funeral unannounced and cause a stir (which foreshadows some big time action in the later chapters)
1b) Optional add-in: this death (or deaths) can be attributed to: cancer, some disease that wasn't found until it was too late, cancer, falling down the stairs (this happened in some random older drama), cancer, eating unclean food (also happened in another drama) or cancer.
2) Fainting: This is a must in all dramas, it not only signifies that someone did something significant to warrant someone losing consciousness or that the news SHOULD be as shocking to the viewer as it is for the faint-ee. This is normally caused by: excessive anger (oh noes, my daughter is pregnant), excessive sadness (oh noes, my daughter is dead), being chloroformed (oh noes...bleh), and tripping on the street (happened before)
2a) Additional information: the excessive sadness due to death is especially the case in dramas depicting ancient times. For some reason, they were all prone to fainting spells at the drop of a hat.
3) Betrayal: Ah, the sting of betrayal is felt in all Asian dramas. Whether it is a son going behind his dad's back and using all his money, a daughter going behind her mom's back to be with a boy, a husband having a mistress or three (happened in a drama), or a grandmother hiding secrets from her family, all dramas feed off of this basic human instinct. This staple is most effective when the victim of the betrayal takes the news badly and ends up: committing suicide, drinking a lot and doing something they regret, jumping into the ocean, crying a LOT. The audience feels a link with the victim and sides with them and in doing so sets them up for some crazy role reversal in the future. Sigh.
4) The young kids of the family doing something stupid: This one takes a little bit of explaining. Usually in Asian dramas, they portray the young kids (ages 5-13) in a very innocent light, the kids are usually bad actors and say their lines monotonously at best, but all the aunties who watch these dramas still go "awwww" when they see them. This makes it all the more horrendous when they see the young kids doing something crazy like running into the middle of the road for no reason and not moving despite a car honking at them like a bat out of hell. These will obviously result in the child either being saved heroically, or dying (see item 1).
4a) Optional: the term "young kid" can also stretch to ages 16-19, where the young kids either squander a whole bunch of wealth, get pregnant, get someone pregnant, help someone get pregnant, watch someone get pregnant or lie that they got someone pregnant. This can lead to big effects on some characters. (see item 1, or 2).
5) Some mob/large crowd scene: Usually this is in the later stages of a drama where much of the story has been told and the series is reaching its climax. There are several versions of this scene but all deal with random yelling, pointing fingers, an old person falling for whatever reason, possible knife or gun wielding. It gives the opportunity for the audience to interact (yell at their TV, no joke, I've seen this happen) along with the crowd and really feel like they are part of the situation. In some cases, this scene has proved to be the catalyst to whatever ends the series (usually item 1)
6) Gratuitous amounts of close ups while thinking: I don't know who came up with this but it's freakin' GENIUS. Let's get up reeeeal close (like nose hair close) to the actors and show how serious they are in their thinking face. Usually, some music accompanies this (thrilling for epiphanies, "scary" for realizations of some dark truth, and happy for well, happy). The music and optional monologue get the audience in the mind of the character setting up some good old fashioned dramatic irony.
6a) Optional: Close ups and music are musts for when characters read letters (not out loud). These letters are usually written by recently deceased characters, on their way to being deceased characters, or some unrequited love from decades ago. What gets me is that they get the voice of the character to read the note/letter. Really? Is it necessary? It's not like the person actually reading the letter is synthesizing a voice in their own head...unless all drama characters are schizophrenic...which would actually explain a lot.
7) Big-time, slow-motion slap: Usually a girl slapping a guy. I don't know why it's so epic (feminist movement?), but you'll never see a slow motion, music driven slap from a guy to girl. This is usually during a break-up of some sort, and the girl is abnormally strong as the guy's head has to snap back so hard he'll get whiplash several times before the freakin' music even ends. He'll be in a state of anger and utter embarrassment, but either not hit back and run away, or hit back (also with a slap, which would be followed by a low note signifying "oh no you DIDN'T just slap a girl!")
8) Slow-motion, totally unnecessary, heroics: As an offshoot to item 4, these are music driven scenes depicting someone doing something stupid, I mean...something heroic, such as diving into a burning building, diving onto a child to save him from a car (because smashing the kid's face into the pavement is that much better), diving into the ocean to save a drowning person, diving headfirst into an awkward situation to get his buddy out of it (a la Bro Code). Either way, these scenes are meant to be uplifting and give the audience something to cheer for (in the cheesiest way possible)
9) Bad...I mean like REALLY bad, kissing: Okay, it's not that I'm an expert kissing observer (because that'd just be wrong and awkward on so many levels) but Asian drams probably have the worst kissing scenes in the world (don't quote me on that). For instance, take your every day, run-of-the-mill kissing scene with the girl and guy finishing a romantic date and they both dive in. What ensues can only be described as watching two woodpeckers smashing their faces into one another in slow-motion. I don't know who developed the "let's peck until we're uncomfortable and its awkward for everybody" method, but that's really gotta stop. I'm not saying you should get into it all Hollywood style (that's just crossing the line), but these actors need to stop getting lessons from dippy birds and start at least making it look convincing.
10) Bad 1960's Batman type shot angles: It seems that for every fight in dramas, in order for the producers and directors to make it seem edgy and dangerous, they need to film fight scenes in the style of an Asian version of Adam West's Batman. In addition to this, chase scenes need to have the angle as well. What is with this fascination and why has Adam West not sued?
So there you have it, the very tip of the iceberg in terms of the very over-the-top aspects and quasi-dramatic ways that Asian soap operas try to draw viewers in. This is not to say that I don't thoroughly enjoy watching them (suspending my belief), it's just funny to see that Asian culture has it's own take on everything.
Oh and one more thing, my dad made some wicked ribs for dinner tonight. Props dad, props.
[WARNING! LONG POST AHEAD!]
So, like I said in a previous post, I was going to post about how Asian soap operas are basically all the same story, same characters, same premise just in different circumstances. Don't believe me? Sort of believe me but too apathetic? Agree with me? Well, whatever category you're in, you're going to read on anyway! I was recently watching some Chinese soap operas with my family, the story was that there was a bunch of rich people in modern day Hong Kong, there were a lot of internal struggles with drugs, money, sex...blah blah blah. Universal themes right? Well, it reminded me a lot of another Chinese drama involving a bunch of rich people in old-school Guangzhou (think Hong Kong but on the mainland) there was also a lot of internal struggles with the family dealing with money, sex, and drugs. Oh wait...How am I watching the same thing again and again and not really knowing? So I proceeded to write down a list of universal traits that can be found in all Chinese dramas, hilariously, they fit with every drama ever made (TVB, at least)
So then I thought, perhaps this extends past the realm of just Hong Kong and the Mainland (refuse to call it China). So, being the person with all the free time that I am, I decided to check out some Taiwanese dramas (Meteor Garden, etc...) and YES, it fit as well. You know what else? It fits with Korean dramas, Japanese dramas...so without further ado, I present the non-exhaustive list of Asian soap opera must-haves!
1) Death: There must, in all circumstances be a death of a family member (whether immediate or randomly somewhere off in the world) that has a major impact upon at least one character. This death will spin the drama into some weird uncomfortable scene with a funeral and lots of crying and some sad violin music taken from a soundtrack to some cheesy movie.
1a) Optional add-in: someone that was previously not a friend of the family will show up to the funeral unannounced and cause a stir (which foreshadows some big time action in the later chapters)
1b) Optional add-in: this death (or deaths) can be attributed to: cancer, some disease that wasn't found until it was too late, cancer, falling down the stairs (this happened in some random older drama), cancer, eating unclean food (also happened in another drama) or cancer.
2) Fainting: This is a must in all dramas, it not only signifies that someone did something significant to warrant someone losing consciousness or that the news SHOULD be as shocking to the viewer as it is for the faint-ee. This is normally caused by: excessive anger (oh noes, my daughter is pregnant), excessive sadness (oh noes, my daughter is dead), being chloroformed (oh noes...bleh), and tripping on the street (happened before)
2a) Additional information: the excessive sadness due to death is especially the case in dramas depicting ancient times. For some reason, they were all prone to fainting spells at the drop of a hat.
3) Betrayal: Ah, the sting of betrayal is felt in all Asian dramas. Whether it is a son going behind his dad's back and using all his money, a daughter going behind her mom's back to be with a boy, a husband having a mistress or three (happened in a drama), or a grandmother hiding secrets from her family, all dramas feed off of this basic human instinct. This staple is most effective when the victim of the betrayal takes the news badly and ends up: committing suicide, drinking a lot and doing something they regret, jumping into the ocean, crying a LOT. The audience feels a link with the victim and sides with them and in doing so sets them up for some crazy role reversal in the future. Sigh.
4) The young kids of the family doing something stupid: This one takes a little bit of explaining. Usually in Asian dramas, they portray the young kids (ages 5-13) in a very innocent light, the kids are usually bad actors and say their lines monotonously at best, but all the aunties who watch these dramas still go "awwww" when they see them. This makes it all the more horrendous when they see the young kids doing something crazy like running into the middle of the road for no reason and not moving despite a car honking at them like a bat out of hell. These will obviously result in the child either being saved heroically, or dying (see item 1).
4a) Optional: the term "young kid" can also stretch to ages 16-19, where the young kids either squander a whole bunch of wealth, get pregnant, get someone pregnant, help someone get pregnant, watch someone get pregnant or lie that they got someone pregnant. This can lead to big effects on some characters. (see item 1, or 2).
5) Some mob/large crowd scene: Usually this is in the later stages of a drama where much of the story has been told and the series is reaching its climax. There are several versions of this scene but all deal with random yelling, pointing fingers, an old person falling for whatever reason, possible knife or gun wielding. It gives the opportunity for the audience to interact (yell at their TV, no joke, I've seen this happen) along with the crowd and really feel like they are part of the situation. In some cases, this scene has proved to be the catalyst to whatever ends the series (usually item 1)
6) Gratuitous amounts of close ups while thinking: I don't know who came up with this but it's freakin' GENIUS. Let's get up reeeeal close (like nose hair close) to the actors and show how serious they are in their thinking face. Usually, some music accompanies this (thrilling for epiphanies, "scary" for realizations of some dark truth, and happy for well, happy). The music and optional monologue get the audience in the mind of the character setting up some good old fashioned dramatic irony.
6a) Optional: Close ups and music are musts for when characters read letters (not out loud). These letters are usually written by recently deceased characters, on their way to being deceased characters, or some unrequited love from decades ago. What gets me is that they get the voice of the character to read the note/letter. Really? Is it necessary? It's not like the person actually reading the letter is synthesizing a voice in their own head...unless all drama characters are schizophrenic...which would actually explain a lot.
7) Big-time, slow-motion slap: Usually a girl slapping a guy. I don't know why it's so epic (feminist movement?), but you'll never see a slow motion, music driven slap from a guy to girl. This is usually during a break-up of some sort, and the girl is abnormally strong as the guy's head has to snap back so hard he'll get whiplash several times before the freakin' music even ends. He'll be in a state of anger and utter embarrassment, but either not hit back and run away, or hit back (also with a slap, which would be followed by a low note signifying "oh no you DIDN'T just slap a girl!")
8) Slow-motion, totally unnecessary, heroics: As an offshoot to item 4, these are music driven scenes depicting someone doing something stupid, I mean...something heroic, such as diving into a burning building, diving onto a child to save him from a car (because smashing the kid's face into the pavement is that much better), diving into the ocean to save a drowning person, diving headfirst into an awkward situation to get his buddy out of it (a la Bro Code). Either way, these scenes are meant to be uplifting and give the audience something to cheer for (in the cheesiest way possible)
9) Bad...I mean like REALLY bad, kissing: Okay, it's not that I'm an expert kissing observer (because that'd just be wrong and awkward on so many levels) but Asian drams probably have the worst kissing scenes in the world (don't quote me on that). For instance, take your every day, run-of-the-mill kissing scene with the girl and guy finishing a romantic date and they both dive in. What ensues can only be described as watching two woodpeckers smashing their faces into one another in slow-motion. I don't know who developed the "let's peck until we're uncomfortable and its awkward for everybody" method, but that's really gotta stop. I'm not saying you should get into it all Hollywood style (that's just crossing the line), but these actors need to stop getting lessons from dippy birds and start at least making it look convincing.
10) Bad 1960's Batman type shot angles: It seems that for every fight in dramas, in order for the producers and directors to make it seem edgy and dangerous, they need to film fight scenes in the style of an Asian version of Adam West's Batman. In addition to this, chase scenes need to have the angle as well. What is with this fascination and why has Adam West not sued?
So there you have it, the very tip of the iceberg in terms of the very over-the-top aspects and quasi-dramatic ways that Asian soap operas try to draw viewers in. This is not to say that I don't thoroughly enjoy watching them (suspending my belief), it's just funny to see that Asian culture has it's own take on everything.
Oh and one more thing, my dad made some wicked ribs for dinner tonight. Props dad, props.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Long time no see, friend.
This'll probably be a quick post, something short and sweet and not to my usual level of wit (bahaha) but something that I really feel moved by.
For those of you who know me, you probably either think I'm a jerk, extremely immature, in need of some guidance or some sort of mix of the aforementioned elements. That aside, I do cherish my friends and family and am rather loyal to them (to a fault, some people in high school may acknowledge). It's not very often that I'm moved by something, or sincerely touched, life and a rather secretly turbulent past has shattered much of the innocence I had. But this story isn't about that.
Originally, I was going to post something funny about Asian soap operas and how fishing never made sense to me but I'll leave that to tomorrow or some future post. I had recently noticed that someone had posted up an album of an event I had recently attended. As I scrolled through the pictures, I lost myself in memories of the event, the laughs and the fondness of the people around me. I honestly didn't see this coming and apparently neither did my heart. I'm not a big softie by any stretch of the imagination, I can be very cold and distant not really letting many people in although I'm usually one of the louder and more "outgoing" people in the room. Yet what struck me about this particular picture was the caption, it really caught my attention and drove home a point that I had not really given much thought to. Friends are not necessarily going to be around you forever, those closest to you are like a flickering flame dancing atop a match, their effect on you is great and their light seems to make all the darkness go away but with any gust of wind, the light fades away. I know what you're thinking, and I'm honestly kicking myself for sounding like such an emotionally driven person but bear with me here.
I was reminded of a funny sounding phrase that an old friend once told me. "People are only in your life for a reason and a season." I had forgotten that simple line, the simple truth that echoed with every word. Many people go through life and take those around them for granted, it's a sad truth but it's a truth nonetheless. Honestly, I did the same thing, I don't have many close friends (I don't make them easily) and I do find that I can be very much alone in a crowded room. Whatever condition that I may be in, I could always count on these friends. It's a funny thing how God places people into your life to change you and to touch you, how these people mold you through their words, actions and comments that they didn't even know you heard or found out about. I sincerely thank God for those He's seen fit to place into my life such that it is.
Anyway, back to the caption. I bet you're all wondering what it was....but I'm not going to tell you. It's not important. What's important is the effect it had on me. After having my moment of epiphany, I quickly called the person and made dinner plans. You never know when you'll see another person again and a sense of urgency ran through me as the phone rang. I was nervous, I have no idea why, as emotions pulsed through me I tried to remain calm and light-hearted as I talked to the person. We scheduled and hung up, I immediately felt a peace and a calm wash over me and proceeded to sit down to write about Asian soap operas and why fishing never made sense to me when I felt compelled to write out these words. I don't expect this to change your outlook on things or even for you all to read through this (if you have, congratulations, really). I'm merely stating my joy at the opportunity to be in these peoples' lives and the honour I feel for having them in mine. And to think, this was all brought on by a simple caption on a photograph.
Yes, friend, it HAS been fun....
This'll probably be a quick post, something short and sweet and not to my usual level of wit (bahaha) but something that I really feel moved by.
For those of you who know me, you probably either think I'm a jerk, extremely immature, in need of some guidance or some sort of mix of the aforementioned elements. That aside, I do cherish my friends and family and am rather loyal to them (to a fault, some people in high school may acknowledge). It's not very often that I'm moved by something, or sincerely touched, life and a rather secretly turbulent past has shattered much of the innocence I had. But this story isn't about that.
Originally, I was going to post something funny about Asian soap operas and how fishing never made sense to me but I'll leave that to tomorrow or some future post. I had recently noticed that someone had posted up an album of an event I had recently attended. As I scrolled through the pictures, I lost myself in memories of the event, the laughs and the fondness of the people around me. I honestly didn't see this coming and apparently neither did my heart. I'm not a big softie by any stretch of the imagination, I can be very cold and distant not really letting many people in although I'm usually one of the louder and more "outgoing" people in the room. Yet what struck me about this particular picture was the caption, it really caught my attention and drove home a point that I had not really given much thought to. Friends are not necessarily going to be around you forever, those closest to you are like a flickering flame dancing atop a match, their effect on you is great and their light seems to make all the darkness go away but with any gust of wind, the light fades away. I know what you're thinking, and I'm honestly kicking myself for sounding like such an emotionally driven person but bear with me here.
I was reminded of a funny sounding phrase that an old friend once told me. "People are only in your life for a reason and a season." I had forgotten that simple line, the simple truth that echoed with every word. Many people go through life and take those around them for granted, it's a sad truth but it's a truth nonetheless. Honestly, I did the same thing, I don't have many close friends (I don't make them easily) and I do find that I can be very much alone in a crowded room. Whatever condition that I may be in, I could always count on these friends. It's a funny thing how God places people into your life to change you and to touch you, how these people mold you through their words, actions and comments that they didn't even know you heard or found out about. I sincerely thank God for those He's seen fit to place into my life such that it is.
Anyway, back to the caption. I bet you're all wondering what it was....but I'm not going to tell you. It's not important. What's important is the effect it had on me. After having my moment of epiphany, I quickly called the person and made dinner plans. You never know when you'll see another person again and a sense of urgency ran through me as the phone rang. I was nervous, I have no idea why, as emotions pulsed through me I tried to remain calm and light-hearted as I talked to the person. We scheduled and hung up, I immediately felt a peace and a calm wash over me and proceeded to sit down to write about Asian soap operas and why fishing never made sense to me when I felt compelled to write out these words. I don't expect this to change your outlook on things or even for you all to read through this (if you have, congratulations, really). I'm merely stating my joy at the opportunity to be in these peoples' lives and the honour I feel for having them in mine. And to think, this was all brought on by a simple caption on a photograph.
Yes, friend, it HAS been fun....
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