In the meantime, please visit my Flickr photostream — something that helps me breathe in the midst of all. The stream can also be seen over at http://photos.pmgomez.com/

Signing out for now.

My selection:

• Soup: Steamed Egg Flan with Seafood
• Appetizer: Steamed Prawn Lotus Salad with Herbs and Chilli Lime Vinaigrette
• Entree: New Zealand Braised Lamb Shank with Gnocchi, Spinach, Pine Nuts & Raisin Lamb Jus
• Dessert: Pannacotta with Strawberry Coulis

4 Courses at US$28.00, plus $8.00 for Signature Dish Supplement, plus 10% Government Taxes and 5% Service Charge.

Location: Hanoi, Vietnam. Near the West Lake.

Review and details to follow. (ie. Too pleased to write a review. Photos of the meal and places from mobile phone will be uploaded soon.)

Restaurant Bobby Chinn Rules:

This restaurant is an Abba, Kenny G, and Gypsy King Free Zone. We also refuse to play any bands with more than one lead singer or matching sweater. Female Teenyboppers dressed like whores with synchronized dancing are also banned! To preserve the dining experience, we request that you are well versed in mobile phone etiquette (SILENCE). All our Poultry & Meats are Halal or as close as it gets to Kosher … Except the Pork of course! None of the staff were harmed (physically) to bring you quality food and service tonight, or ever. Children’s menu available upon request and duct tape is available for hyperactive children. Please do not ask us to split the bill other than by a number. We do not do “She had this, and I had 1/2 of that” very well. Please note that we have smaller portions at the same prices for Anorexics and those aspiring. Also this restaurant is non smoking, please smoke at the bar, feel free to fart there also. Thank you …

I recently obtained a tablet device and wanted to try it out. My first piece is a hand-executed brownian-motion-path-like doodle where I just let my hand with pen jitter over the tablet.

This piece began with the rear wheel as I was doing drawing in a circular motion with the pen. It later expanded into one of the favorite public utility vehicles in the Philippines — the Jeepney.

Even if the pieces were performed by the SCO, one would notice that while the pipa or erhu player is using a traditional Chinese instrument, the way they are played are still very sharp.

I particularly enjoyed the taiko performances by Eitetsu Hiyashi and of course the encore. Sadly, I wasn’t able to record anything as it was prohibited (ie. just follow law!).

A day or two before this concert, there was another concert by The Zheng Ensemble at the concourse. Their junior members performed “Butterfly Lovers,” an all-time favorite.

It’s very interesting to see how we see the roots of East Asian music from that of Chinese. Further, if we go down south to Vietnam, we see the strong influence of the Chinese in Viet music and culture. I just find it very interesting that when one quips to a Viet, “oh you look Chinese,” you’ll see long faces. I reckon this is due to 2 things. First, the Chinese invaded Vietnam when Vietnam tried to invade Cambodia. Second, when the French colonized Vietnam, they reformed their writing systems and thus breaking the umbilical cord between Vietnam and China. If the French Jesuit Alexander de Rhodes didn’t invent this new writing system and if he just studied Chinese like Matteo Ricci, perhaps Vietnam would still be using Chinese characters today, and therefore I’d be able to easily read their materials and communicate with them. However, as the French phrase goes, c’est la vie!

As I had some time to spare, I stayed on and watched the performances. While watching, I noticed a familiar face on the stage backdrop. Reading the words, the backdrop stated “featuring TumTum Mendoza.” TumTum’s name was no stranger to me. Growing up, I’ve seen his name spread across local dailies. However, it was indeed a treat to see him perform (for free!).

The performers’ condition got me thinking about autistic savants. I’ve read about savants and autism for some time. The common denominator would perhaps be the lack of social skills - that is, the existence of a shell/bubble surrounding that person. Maybe the presence of such is much of a gift in this world where we are continually surrounded and barraged by noise received by all of our senses. A person’s ability to concentrate amid distractions is a skill too precious. Music, math, painting, etc all seem to require great concentration. Perhaps that’s the key as to why autistic savants are so good — because they are innately gifted.

The following is a demonstration of using those gifts, and championing humanity in the process.

Edit: Concentration might not be the right word. It’s more of the unique ability to focus (?) on one task and be very good at it without minding what’s happening around one’s self.

Right from the beginning of the movie up till the end, I was taken aback and was just kept in surreal awe and wonder. The movie was so clear — both in terms of visuals as well as story. In fact, it’s the clearest movie I’ve ever seen on the big screen. I deem that it played a major contributing factor for the stickiness of the movie. I understand that the cinema uses the D-Cinema system from Texas Instruments. Rather amazing I should say.

During the end credits, one name drew attention: Stephen Chow. You see, I’m an avid fan of Asian movies — especially Chinese and Southeast Asian ones. If you’ve seen Kung Fu Hustle and/or Shaolin Soccer, you would’ve noticed that the cinematography as well as martial arts choreography of Dragonball Evolution is very similar to those of the former two. When I saw Stephen’s name as the movie’s producer, it all became very clear.

While almost all, if not all, of the characters were Asian, it was very smart of them to place a white guy, who looked Eurasian, to play the role of Goku. I now understand that it’s a very good way to market the movie to the West and adds a breath of fresh air to this much-loved anime.

Dragonball Evolution’s Philippine preview - sponsored by SM Cinemas and Net-25, among others.

It’s pretty clear that if the one communicating the statement were only to think, he/she would’ve added an apostrophe between U and R, and the letter E at the end of the first word. Back in high school, when weaving the web meant pouring into hundreds of lines of bare HTML that rendered very simple interfaces, I got the chance to design my alma mater’s (then-called) Computer Education Department’s site. Having a penchant for branding and marketing, I looked for something that could iconify the Department’s vis/mis.

I chanced upon IBM’s one-word slogan - Think. At that time, I didn’t know that “Think” went all the way back to Watson Sr. All I knew was that it was being used to campaign IBM’s resurrection as led by Lou Gerstner. This inspired me to propose “Think Again” to be the Department’s theme — almost a decade before National Geographic started using the phrase in and for its branding. My proposed branding even had a graphical element — an abstract illustration of Auguste Rodin’s Thinker, like the replica found at Stanford.

Fast forward to 2009, we see IBM going back to its roots, to its core, in its campaign to change the world. One of the videos I stumbled into that I really love is the following.

Think.

Utada Hikaru (宇多田 ヒカル)’s debut album First Love was released in 1999. This means that she composed and performed the single that topped Japan’s charts when she was just 16. I’m not much of a J-pop person, but I knew I liked her songs. Come to think of it, I got introduced to the artist by some of my high school students.

Being a fan of the orchestra, I tried looking in YouTube for an orchestra version of First Love. The only one I could find was an audio-only version by the Warsaw Philharmonic. There’s also a strings mix version. What I find interesting is that there’s actually a version by a Malaysian Chinese orchestra from Penang, and another by an Indonesian choir. Wow!

What I did see is Hikari, the theme of Kingdom Hearts, which is also very good. It was performed in as part of Video Games Live.

Inspired, I thought I’d give my hand a try at arranging a song for the orchestra. It has been roughly 2 decades since I last played the organ seriously, and perhaps 15 years since I attempted to re-study. So. With virtually no musical training under my belt, I gave it a try. The following is what I came up with. I hope you’d enjoy it, and leave some comments for further improvement.

The composition uses strings (cello, violin), percussions (timpani, chimes, etc), brass, woodwinds, among others. The idea of splitting the strings came from Paj (thank you!). All others mine.

While it may take some time before I could whip up something good for this group, am glad that this kicks in a good start. Having this kind of a production remains a dream … for now.