Oh yeah, Paula Deen

So I made this recipe the other day out of Paula Deen's cookbook:

Sausage-Rice Casserole

1 6 oz. box of uncle ben's wild rice
1 pound of Sausage
2 Onions, chopped
1 4 oz. can of mushroom pieces
1 can of Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
4 tablespoons of butter

prepare rice, fry up sausage, combine everything into casserole except butter. then dollop the butter and bake at 350 for 25 minutes

TIME OUT

I made my own variation:
First I use Thai rice, I just cant bring myself to use Uncle Ben's when I have so many Asian friends that would beat me up for using that. After cooking the sausage, I used 1 large onion and fried that in the sausage grease. I left out the canned mushroom pieces (if I had them, i would use some fresh wild mushrooms and would have fried those with the onions). And I did everything else the same.

FUCKIN CHRONIC!!!

Christmas, cooking, and new years

As you may have guessed, the pics in the previous post were just pics I found on the web of my Christmas presents. I'm not going to pose in my bicycle shorts or under-armor until I get ultimately ripped. The A's hat was given to me by Will to match my Jordans. The moccasins in this pic are the ones I got from my mom.

I'm bringing back Jello. After looking through many old cookbooks, the 50's and 60's were a time in America for Jello. This delicious fruity treat has since gone away for more trendier things like Crème bruleé. Its almost faux pas to make jello anymore. But all trends return eventually and so I am bringing back the jello salad as well as the bowtie.

As you can see my fish tank is once again beautiful and spotless. My bike is also lookin' great. Went yesterday for a ride with Steven on the fixie to OG and then to Sweet Retreat and back home. Need to get a pic of us on the bikes cause my bike is the angel and his is the devil with our opposing color schemes (his is red and black).

My New Year's resolution is to not gossip. I think this is essential in being impeccable with my word (Ruíz, The Four Agreements). When you say something bad about somebody, the universe changes so that it agrees with that. I think the same can be said for Racial Stereotypes. For Example: When we say Asian's can't drive and find evidence of it, we believe it. What if we all said Asian's are the best drivers? Then when we see evidence of it, we will believe it and that stereotype will be gone. I'm sure you all can find an example of an impeccable Asian driver equally as much as you can find a bad one. Gossiping is essentially the same thing. I don't want to be responsible for putting the negative energy about somebody into the universe. Will I break this resolution? Probably...but that shouldn't mean I can't start all over again.

My Christmas presents

Also a neck tie, some coffee, some gift cards from the kids, and a travel mug

Had a great Christmas Eve with the family. June got my mom buzzed with some of his great cosmos. Lots of fun playing scattegories and eating deep fried turkey. Went back to my place that evening and enjoyed some good times with the friends. Especially happy about Skyping with Kenny. He got to enjoy all the fun including a nice brawl between two brothers. It was hilarious because i made sure Kenny had a great view. Dennis and I just watched, Steven refereed. Good times. Unfortunatley chauncey got wounded in the face. It should be alright.

An Epiphany about my job

I figured out exactly what I love and hate about my job and it boils down to one thing...THE MUSIC!

Take for instance the case of the Illyrian Dances, I love the piece and find it interesting. It is a challenge to conduct and teach. Had all the students in band been of the ability to eventually perform this, I would have been happy about it. But when somebody gets in the way of my music making such as one section who never practiced and never learned their part, the frustration comes.

I'm currently working with the Chamber Choir on Ove Lass by Lauridsen. This amazing piece is extremely difficult. What I love about it is that it is challenging for me to learn to conduct and teach it. I get to make alot of artistic decisions about the piece and the technical aspects are difficult forcing the choir to really step up. With only one rehearsal on it, I feel confident they can learn it.

Last year I worked for months on David Diamond's Rounds for orchestra. It was very difficult and the kids didn't like it for the longest time. But I was diligent and the more and more I studied and conducted it, the better they got and the more they liked it. By May we had a great performance of it at the CMEA festival. I don't think we nailed it, but we came close. Its that kind of work that really made me love that class that year.

These pieces force me to study, do good rehearsals, and conduct well. This is what I love about music. If I could do this with every class with every piece every day, my life would be ecstasy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMX3qv1N37s&feature=fvst

Thoughts about my concert and 2012

My concert tonight was bitter sweet. Orchestra played beautifully way beyond my expectation. It was brilliant programming on my part and brilliant playing on their part. Bravo to them! Band sucked big ballz. Its unfair to say that they all did, but there is just a level of immaturity that holds them back from playing brilliantly in the technical and musical aspects. I have tried so hard with them and I am at the end of my rope. I would rather give up on them then spend any more of my time and energy dealing with their issues.

2012
After watching documentaries and reading books on this date that marks the end of the world in both the Mayan and Chinese calendar, I am going to tell you exactly what is going to happen on Dec. 22, 2012. Nothing! You will not experience this date any differently than any other date. This date marks the end of the world as we know it and the beginning of a new world that we will live in. Let me elaborate some more:

Many of you are aware of the third eye. It is something that we all have and it is a mini portal to see the parallel dimension of the spiritual realm that goes along side us as we go through life. Time in this dimension is different and thus we cannot see it with our own physical eyes because we exist in a linear dimension. We can feel its energy and when we dream, we merge with it (hence we have dreams that may feel like days and we were only sleeping for 30 minutes). The recognition of this parallel dimension after 2012 is what is going to change in our lives.

Unfortunately for us peaceful people who can easily accept this, our evangelical brothers and sisters as well as our fundamentalist Muslims and Jews are not going to appreciate this. Atheists won't care one way or the other. These hardcore religious nuts are going to have a rude awakening and many of them will result to violence to prove that they are right. As civilized people, we need to lay the groundwork to not let them spoil our party. This is a time where the Earth will thrive, government will be unnecessary, and humans will be ready to accept each other as who they are. Commerce will not be what it is like today.

The rise of autistic children is a signal of this coming age. There is nothing wrong with these people. They are living differently in a world that isn't ready for them. Don't be afraid, just be open. The study of music, art, culture, science, and literature are the subjects we should all be studying. Eastern medicine, philosophy, and astrology are going to be the new subjects that will come to the front of education.

Concerts

So I just played 4 Christmas concerts and made some bank. The music wasn't hard, but I got this sinus infection that is killing the whole right side of my face. It feels like I got socked in the right cheekbone. Leland Christmas concerts coming up Tuesday and Thursday. I can't wait to get those done and over with. I need to spruce up my concerts more so I am inspired to make them better. I have been letting my kids get away with too much mediocrity. I spend so much time yelling at the kids who really suck and not enough time making the mediocre kids good and the good kids great.

Here are some highlights for Tuesday's Orchestra and band concert (7:00 at Leland Cafeteria tickets are $5 at the door, please pay so Justin can go to San diego):
J.S. Bach- Double Violin Concerto in D Minor with M. Akasako and R. Nishijima as the soloists
G.F. Händel- Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
A. Ginestera- Danza finale from Estancia
G. Woolfenden- Illyrian Dances
Christmas songs to include Patapan, Do You Hear what I hear?, and some others

Highlights for Thursdays choir concert(7:00 Leland Cafeteria, tickets $5 at the door, please pay so Philip can go to San Diego):
Tomorrow shall be my dancing day, A la nanita nana, Fum Fum Fum,
Willan- Hodie Christus Natus Est
Durufle- Ubi Caritas
Lauridsen- O Magnum
and some more Christmas favorites (ding! Fries are done!)

Merry Christmas Musicians

bastards ate all my leftovers

WTH MAN! No more turkey, no more mashed potatoes, no more gravy, no more stuffing. All I have to eat in my house is spam and eggs and those mi garang noodles that dennis bought (which are fuckin legit, btw). Steven Yoon is an awesome photographer. That pic was taken by him. I told him he should drop out of school and just be a photographer.

The End Game

My Gravy

My turkey (didn't take pics of my parent's grilled turkey)

My Dad riding my bike in his Raider's apron

Yesterday I was talking to my friend DJ K.Choi on skype. Hadn't talked to him for awhile since he has been teaching English in Korea. He is reading this book, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. He was explaining to me how Andrew Carnegie said that a man should take the first third of his life acquiring knowledge, the second third acquiring as much wealth as possible, and the final third giving all that wealth out.

After a few minutes of discussion, something so powerful came over me. I have always told others that if I won the Lotto, I would build a beautiful concert hall for my community where I work and I would continue teaching the rest of life performing all my concerts there. I also said that I wanted to be a professional symphony conductor, but always questioned it when I matched it up with the lotto scenario. Now I know that this is my End Game. In the final third of my life, I will have the wealth to build my Cathedral for music. It will be a concert hall built for my community in San Jose where all the high school bands, choirs, and orchestras will perform in. Actually there will be a building for each. I want my students so badly to perform in a beautiful venue like the cathedrals in Europe, Disney Hall, and Davies Hall. But we shouldn't have to raise hella money to do that every time we want to, we should have it in our own backyard and it should be free for all high schools. I'm so sick of performing in a cafeteria. Santa Teresa just got a beautiful new performance space, but I bet they have to share it with the Drama department. This Cathedral of Music will not be shared with Drama or with a Religious organization (unless their choir wants to perform in it), it will be purely for art music. It will be a place where we can have summer music festivals inviting many different musical groups to come perform and maybe even have a friendly competition like the Marktoberdorf or Spittal. Maybe it could become a place like the Salzburg festival.

So now I gotta read this book, honor my word, and set out to build my dream.

Thanksgiving

ode to the turkey
in the stile of e.e.cummings

HAthe turkey was awesome
mashedPPotatoes were drY
sTuffing was okay
i don't know why

THen i pAssed out
from all the triptophyN
that was real nice
woKe up from the nap
and had Some tea with ice

Grandma was there as grandpa too
uncle mIke came by and aunt mary to boo
it was Very exciting and all sorts of fun
i hope you did tooING

r.g. rodriguez

Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe Suite 2

Turn on your computer, turn off all the lights. Play the whole Daphnis et Chloe Suite 2 with the visualizer on full screen. No need for shrooms!

Ft. Lauderdale

So I had my TA during band look for new jobs for me today. This is the point of the year (and yes this happens every year) where I start looking for something more, better, and different. He found me a job in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. What would I do if I moved to Florida? I would be so lonely. I don't know anybody in Florida.

The most important part of making Gumbo is making a good roux, never turn your back on it, cause if it burns, you gotta start all over again.

Make the roux using equal parts of flour and olive oil. Stir until chocolaty brown. Add a chopped onion, chopped celery, and 2 chopped bell peppers. Cook for 10 minutes. At this time add some salt to taste, cayenne pepper, some sausage (andouille is the traditional sausage for gumbo), some thyme, and a bay leaf.

Here is where things get creative:
To make seafood gumbo, you add about 32 oz. of seafood stock. Let that simmer for a couple of hours. When you want to eat, add your clams, fish, shrimps, oysters, squid, crab, lobster, and any other sea critters you like. This now has to be completely finished by the end of the night. Seafood gumbo does not refrigerate well.

To make chicken gumbo, you add 32 oz of chicken stock. Let that simmer for a couple of hours, add some seasoned chicken pieces an hour before serving. Serve over hot rice. This can hold up well and be taken for lunches.

Other Options: You can add some tomato paste to your roux right before you add the veggies. If you like okra ( I don't), throw them in when you throw in the meat. If it were me and i wanted to serve okra in my gumbo, I would slice them up in little rounds, bread them in corn meal, fry them, and serve as a garnish. Try using beef broth and little chunks of beef. You could also skip the seafood or chicken and do purely sausage gumbo.

my fixie

my aquarium

Wednesdays dinner, chicken enchiladas

Screwin' with Chow Dog's new Mazdaspeed3

A view from the trumpet player's perspective

Top 5 Breakfast places in San Jose

1. Los Gatos Cafe
2. The Country Inn
3. Bill's
4. Southern Kitchen
5. The Flames

If I had a 6th spot, Hobbee's would probably be next. Stack's is definitely not on there, just don't like the atmosphere, food, or wait staff.

Love the Country Inn, I go to the one on Almaden and Camden and the manager is such a great guy and everyone is so friendly. Same with the one on Monterrey, wait staff is a bunch of sweet Mexican ladies. Everyone knows my name at both places. Sit at the counter for the best service. Don't sit next to the creeper at the monterrey location or the scary guy with the Jewish nose at the Camden location.

Bill's is awesome because of the atmosphere, I got drunk there just this morning. Mimosas and Cranberry mimosas are a must sometimes and Bill's in Willow Glen is the place to be for those. Shots are a must there as well. I had 2 regular mimosas and a cranberry mimosa and that got me very happy.

Flame's is cool, just a great place to eat. The one on Bernal is not so good. Your food might be cold when it comes. The one downtown is great, though as is the one on Winchester. Nothing special about this place. You can get greek sausage with your eggs. Also their chicken apple sausage is the best.

Southern Kitchen is crazy busy, but has great food. A good place to get some menudo on the weekend. Definitely a southern breakfast place if you like that sort of thing. Your pancakes will come with margarine and there are several different creams to put in your coffee.

Los Gatos Cafe is the finest food. They offer great grits, fresh pastries with all your meals. The steak and eggs are killer cause the use high quality steak that is marinated. Hashbrowns and homefries are always good. Definitely my number 1. Make sure you bring cash.

10 things I'm greatful for

1. A career
2. Money in my account
3. My car
4. My bike
5. My friends
   
6. Hookah
7. My family
8. My fish tank
9. My iPhone
10. Chicken
    

My weekend in Haiku

Yesterday I went
to an autism dinner,
Chi Ling performed well.

I met Martin Yan
"if Yan can cook, so can you!"
that guy is so G.

I played Brahms today,
it was a great performance,
I played very well.

Went to Boiling Crab
with Will, Bianca, and Tonez
my ass hella hurts.

I got schooled today
on crabs, by a fine crab wench.
She was pretty hot.

The Aquarium

I quit smoking on Sunday Nov 1. Me and 5 others have each agreed to pay $100 into a pot if we fail. Last one standing gets the pot. It's really not that hard. It's all a mental game of who has the strongest mind and discipline. I know I will be $500 richer before 6 months is up.

I bought a North Face jacket. Only $100 with my mom's hookup at Macy's. Gonna sportin' it on the fixie rides. Haven't posted my fixie up yet, might be selling it soon. I want an upgrade.

¡Aquí está desayunos tradícional, chorizo con huevos!

Lastly I want to share the aquarium I got for my birthday from FarmerChow. It took him a month to clean the tank, but today I finally got it. I went to Walmart and got some stuff for it. Still need a filter, though. I have such caring friends!

I got two job offers this weekend for conducting. One is a conducting gig with CMTSJ. They are contracting me to be music director for Once Upon a Mattress. I may also be vocal directing. I would love to do both. I also was asked by the orchestra director at Mission College if I would be interested in taking over the orchestra if his sabbatical goes through. This would be very optimal. I hope these both go through. I think somebody has been praying for me, sending me good energy, or maybe its me and my positive energy. These two gigs seem miraculous to me because I didn't seek them out, they just came to me. I haven't been pursuing the conducting career lately cause I have been being complacent. I have been happy with my career right now. My constant struggle is do I leave my nice comfortable music teaching job for something bigger and risk losing my comfortable lifestyle? Then I ask myself if I won the lotto, what would I do? The answer is always to continue teaching and on the side create my own professional symphony where all the players get paid good salaries and perform in a beautiful venue.

The Earthquake Drill

So every year at some point we have a disaster drill at school. The most relevant being an earthquake drill here in the bay area. So here is what happened today:

We're rehearsing our music and our earthquake drill is announced, so we are all supposed to duck and cover under desks. Music rooms, however, don't have desks. So I tell kids to get under the piano, doorways, and stuff of that nature. This creates some chaos especially for the one kid who thinks this is all a bunch of bullshit and that he can just sit at the piano and play. So once this is over, we have to evacuate, so that means I have to lock my doors and leave. Since I have three sets of doors to lock, I tell the kids to go on without me and I'll catch up.

So I lock the doors and I go out there to see the vice principal yelling at my kids on the bullhorn to stop singing. The gentlemen in my choir thought it would be funny to sing Marching to Praetoria as they marched out to the soccer field. When I finally caught up to the kids, I was told by the vice principal that my kids were misbehaved. I finally corralled all my students, took role and told them to sit down while I go take care of my responsibilities in this drill. I go do that then I come back and give the kids a piece of my mind and how they behavior reflected poorly on me. When were dismissed to go back to class I told them to sit down and don't say a word. They obeyed.

When they were all seated and silent, my vice principal came in to have a word with them. She told them that in an emergency, it is not okay to make alot of noise.

I wasn't that mad that the students did what they did. I was a tiny bit embarrassed. Reza happened to be there at this time because he wanted to drop by, say hi, listen to the choir, and give me some coffee. When I told him what happened he told me I should be proud that they are so passionate about singing. I think he is right. This is the first time I have had a choir that is not embarrassed to sing in public. They are made up of the kids like Andy Chung, who would bust out in song in the airport if every part was covered. Granted, that is not my personality. But this choir has that personality and I am proud. When I was telling the teachers in the lunch room, they just laughed. Kids will be kids. I think we all did the right thing. My vice principal did her job, she is supposed to be the mean lady that takes away the fun. I did my job of yelling at them because I had to be told to keep my class in control, and they did their job in being good choir students. My program is definitely getting better!!!

Question of the day

Is there no honor for a woman to stay at home and take care of the kids and cook for her husband anymore?

Ove Lass il bel viso

Best Choir on the Internet!!!

Real Men Sing (and apparently cry)

Today I took the men of my chamber choir to an event at San Jose State called Real Men Sing.It was an awesome event where they got to sing with 400 other men in a rehearsal and performance. It posed some interesting questions for me that I would love to hear comments on.

The clinician/conductor was Dan Earl from Santa Rosa High School. This is a great conductor and wonderful man. He is very vulnerable to the music and to teaching. He cried three times throughout this clinic because he was moved by the music, but also of what he was doing. Mr. Earl realizes that he has touched the lives of many musicians at this clinic.

Watching this male conductor cry was moving to me. It inspired me to be more vulnerable to the music. Watching my kids watch him cry was quite an experience as well. At least two of them looked like they were moved and rather than just being in the moment, they turned to their electronic devices to tune him out. Some of you might say that they were just bored and if you asked them, they would say they were bored. But I know that deep down inside, they were afraid of this vulnerability. Teaching Asian students, I have found that they will do anything not to become emotional. Probably because their dad beat them every time they cried when they were little. I know my dad did. I cried a lot when I was young and I wasn't afraid to let the tears go in front of people either. But lately, I have grown immune to it. I don't let myself cry. I hold it in. I was taught at a very young age that it is not manly to do this. I could never see myself conducting a men's choir of high school and college aged men and crying.

So I ask you, is it appropriate for a man to cry when he is moved by music? Or is that a pussy thing to do? Is it appropriate for me to cry as a conductor or would I lose power and respect? Is this gay? What does it say about you to say that its not okay? Are you afraid of being vulnerable to music? If you are woman reading this, what do you think? Should I be crying more? Should my male students be comfortable with this?

Some good eats: Chile Verde

Inspired by one of my coworkers, I made my first attempt at the classic Mexican dish that my mom does so well. Except I didn't take the shortcuts my mother does.

Salsa Verde:
5 Yellow Chiles
5 Jalepeños (I forgot these in this attempt, still was good, but lacked the heat)
8-10 Tamotillos (remove the shell)
1 white onion
3 whole cloves of garlic
Boil these ingredients in water for like 30 minutes, pureé in the blender

Prepare a pork shoulder by seasoning with kosher salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and cumin. Place in the slow cooker with all the salsa verde. Cook all day and enjoy with some beans, rice, and some fresh tortillas.

here is a day in the life of ME!!!

My day begins with my shower...I love the Axe

On Sunday and Monday nights, June crashes at my place because the commute is closer to his work since he starts at 7AM. So I wake him up since we leave for work at the same time on those days. Everyday he says "5 more minutes".
Some asshole parked in my spot, as you can see I parked close enough so he/she would have to go through the passenger side.
Here is my office, its rather clean cause I made my TA clean it


Here is what I do all day long...best job in the world!!!


When I go home, I cook. Today I made some fish tacos and some homemade salsa. The salsa is made by reconstituting dried guajillo chiles. Boil those with onions, garlic, and a tomato. Peel the tomato, chuck the chile stems, and blend for a delicious smokey salsa. Enjoy with your fish tacos!!!

The Chosen

You must all go see this play The Chosen. Its based off the novel by Chaim Potok about two Jews growing up together as best friends in Brooklyn. It played on themes of brotherhood, ethnic tensions, and everyone's favorite "having beef with your Dad." Very emotional scenes and good arguments for and against Zionism.

Speaking of "beef", I had an interesting incident with a student today. A kid was texting in class and I wanted to take his phone away. He argued with me, tried to make a deal, all sorts of shit to try to get out of me taking his phone away. Honestly I don't really care...I just don't want people texting while I am teaching them. Furthermore, there is a school policy to take phones away from kids even if they are out. Now its ultimatly my decision whether to enforce this. If the kid gives me his phone right away, I usually forget about the whole thing and he can pretty much just take it after class. But when the kid is argues with me, resists me, and is being outright defiant, what would you do? I just become an asshole about it and give the phone to the office. From an administrator prospective, I should always give the phone to the office. From a kid's prospective, I should let them do whatever they want in class. I think of myself as a compromise between the two. Its very simple, you break the rules, I enforce them.

Lookin through my iPhone pics

Trying to make my blog as cool as Matt's...so far not so good.

Breaking my AR-15 Cherry

Monique

Rachel's wedding

Hotpot ala Cambodian

Dinner at my parents

Bitch!

Gourmet night with Mr. Peterson. We had a Grand Marnier souffle along with some nice scotch, rack of lamb.

This dog just hopped in my car!!!

Cold day at the beach, this happened sometime this summer. Chauncey was over at like 5AM and I was like "why you wake me up?!?!" and I was like "You on my time now bitch..."so Chauncey, June, and I went to the beach at 6 AM, got some Gayle's in Capitola, watched some surfers, stopped in Los Gatos for some Soup at 10.



In Las Vegas. Vern, Romel, Mike, Paul, and I tried the local cusine. This is a fried twinkie and some fried Oreos. The next day for breakfast I had some Chicken and Waffles. Gained about 10 lbs. that weekend and clogged up all my arteries.