My Halloween costume: a furry panda hat I bought from a street vendor in SoHo, and my plush velvet suit I bought in Reykjavík way back in 2000.

Awesome funny pic of me by the talented Ida Benedetto.  Taken at #SXSWNYC last night at Purpose headquarters.  Full set on Flickr.  We will be submitting these to TED Prize winner JR’s Inside Out project.

I’m wearing a Creative Commons Limited Edition SHARE t-shirt.

Keynote speech by playwright and JET alum Randall David Cook

Loving the new Purpose office, where Chinatown meets Little Italy (Ni hao you doin’?).   Our building was formerly known as Odd Fellows Hall.  A fitting name indeed. 

More about Odd Fellows Hall.

Odd Fellows Hall by epicharmus, on Flickr

My new musical hobby – learning to play the ukulele

Estrella Intersects The Plane by Matthew Richard

Significant Other by Diego Rioja

The Life Dress by Elizabeth Fuller

I took this photo in Williamsburg on my way to Joel’s dinner party last week.

Photo by Chika Iijima @ ITP
Hipstamatic for iPhone

Photos by Daniel in the Lion’s Den via Flickr.

Next course was Ash-e joe, a thick soup with lentils, black eyed peas and mixed greens, topped with yogurt and fried onions.  Healthy, hearty, and delicious.  The soup could easily be a meal in itself and is perfect for a cold day rainy day like the day we visited.

Then I had some tongue sandwich.  I love tongue for its chewy, meaty texture, and go for it every time I get Japanese or Korean BBQ.  The tongue at Attari was different though.  It was almost falling-apart tender, like the best pot roast or pastrami.  The sandwich itself reminded me a bit of banh mi in the best possible way.

In summary, Attari has generous portions, reasonable prices and an authentic Persian experience in LA.  Definitely check it out.  I heard that they have brain sandwiches there too, try it if you are feeling adventurous.  My dining companions weren’t ready to deal with that when I went.

Attari on Yelp
Review of Attari in the NYTimes

I checked out Kogi, the much-hyped Los Angeles Korean BBQ Taco truck when I was in town visiting the family last week.  We followed them on Twitter and drove out to Encino to wait in line for the Korean/Mexican fusion food cart.  They have multiple trucks that park at different locations in LA on different days.  All I have to say about the experience is “Yes!”

Yes, the place has a lot of hype, but the food was great.

Yes, it’s fusion, but it’s fusion that just works.

Yes, the lines are long, so get there early.

Yes, the truck was late, stuck in traffic on the 405, but this is LA…

Yes, it’s cheap. Two bucks for a taco and five for a quesadilla.

I tried the tofu and spicy pork tacos and the kimchi quesadilla.  The tofu was flavorful with Korean marinade and seared to make it taste “meaty” rather than gelatinous.  Worth trying even if you are a total carnivore.  The spicy pork was great too: spicy, sweet, meaty, and fatty.  I have to admit this one was an easy sell for me.  When I go to Korean BBQ, I prefer the pork belly to the usual beef dishes like kalbi and bulkogi.  The quesadilla was amazing too.  The umami that comes out of the ménage à trois of kimchi, sesame, and melted cheese is divine.

Kogi Official Website
Kogi on Twitter
Kogi on Yelp

More NYE photos on Flickr.

An eerily impressionistic and grainy photo of my Mumbo Jumbo Maracas performance at ITP NIME 2009 by Derek Chung.

Last week, Kris and I followed the New Amsterdam Trail, an official tour of the National Park Service created by the Harbor Conservancy in partnership with the Henry Hudson 400 Foundation.  Download the free tour files here, then put the MP3s on your MP3 player and print out the PDF map.  The 90-minute self-guided tour of Lower Manhattan starts in Battery Park and ends on Wall Street and tells the story of the early days of New Amsterdam, the Dutch colony that would become New York City.  Honestly, not much remains to see from those old Dutch days, but I would recommend doing the tour anyway to hear some fascinating stories of the early history of the City.  In any case, it’s a good excuse to stop for an al fresco snack and a drink on Stone Street.

Then there is the unexpected.  We saw a wild turkey foraging right in the middle of Battery Park!  See, there is definitely more to New York wildlife than just pigeons and rats.  We’ve also spotted a barn owl one night last year in Battery Park City.

My photo from the Bohemian Beer Garden in Astoria was published in the June 2009 print edition of Charleston Magazine.  Here is the online version of the article (no photo though).  It’s funny that they misprinted by last name as “Huong” instead of “Huang.”  Oh well.

BTW, I’ve never actually been to Charleston, and my photo has nothing to do with Charleston, it was to illustrate an article about “summer escapes.”

Alleyways in the
City of Saint Francis
Hide Victorian houses
Charming
California dreaming
Or warehouse walls
Covered in human excrement
Hipsters or homeless
Smoking the dregs of humanity
Oh California
California
You finally spread
Your golden legs of
Sunshine
Before I leave you
Again

The Canadian Council of the Blind has published a fundraising cookbook, Kitchens of the World, which features 200+ recipes and photographs from around the world.  A couple of my photos (including the one above) appear in the Haiti and Domincan Republic chapters.  The book is available online as a paid e-book download or in printed hardcover form.  Proceeds from the book go towards supporting programs for the blind and disabled.

Monkeys in the Mission, San Francisco

Monkeys near San Francisco Chinatown

Popular Monkey helmet, Taiwan

Monkeys in Shikoku, Japan

Kris and Monkeys, New York

See my entire “Summer 2009 in San Francisco” photo set on Flickr.