Spring Break '09

For Spring Break, I visited my friend Sasha at NYU for the week. I promise you my obsession with "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Office" (the New York episodes anyway) did not influence my decision, although it couldn't have hurt. Here's an itemized break-down of what I did back east:

Saturday, March 14:
Arrive at LGA
Takoyaki at Otafuku in the East Village
High-tops & Red Mango in SoHo
Delivery from Sirtaj
Incriminating Facebook videos
3 AM Karaoke in K-town

Sunday, March 15:
Pomona reunion in SoHo
Getting lost on the B train to Brooklyn
NYU reunion in Brighton Beach
Russian/Uzbek food and music videos
Evening walk to Coney Island
P. Diddy Cheesecake & McDonald's bonding in Brooklyn
Packing for DC

Washington, DC
Monday, March 16
6 AM bus from NYC to DC Chinatown
Checking into hotel in Maryland
Return to DC for walk around National Mall, Lincoln Memorial, White House
Early dinner at Chipotle-McDonalds in Chinatown

Tuesday, March 17: Bojangles & purchasing supplies
Arlington National Cemetery
Capitol Building & Supreme Court
Thai food in Chinatown
Hotel party

New York City
Wednesday, March 18: Final visit to 7-11
Pandas at the DC Zoo
Recovering from the 4-hour drive back to NYC
Obligatory Times Square photo-op
The search for the chicken & rice truck on Broadway
Party back at the apartment

Thursday, March 19: Chinese food galore in Flushing (duck buns, pork buns, lamb skewers, noodles, shave ice, egg custard)
Obligatory Central Park & Upper East Side visit
Bulgogi at Woorijip in Koreatown

Friday, March 20: Chinese food & ice cream in the snow
The hellish trip back to California:
-Getting lost on the 1 Train in Harlem
-Backtracking to 47th to get to Queens
-Shady and expensive taxi ride to La Guardia
-Finding out flight was delayed, getting moved to a flight from JFK
-Shuttle bus from LGA to JFK
-6 hour delay in the terminal

1000 Books Everyone Must Read (Before They Die)

From Chocolate Geek's Flickr/Creative Commons
With the launch of the Kindle 2 earlier this week, my Twitter stream has been full of calls for book suggestions and their appropriate responses. Although I do not really have the time for leisure reading during the semester, I've long been interested in finding a complete list of books that I need to read before I die, a full list that might show me exactly how to live. From @mrskutcher's twitter, a list of a 1,000 novels that everyone must read before they croak from the UK's The Guardian. (Note: Because of the list's British-ness, some suggestions will obviously be a bit quirky to US sensibilities, and I'm sure some American classics have been omitted.)

Welcome to Hawaii

Here's a great clip from the Rock's appearance last night on Saturday Night Live. Not saying it's 100% accurate, but it definitely hits close to home.

Ita-cho Japanese Restaurant Review

(Photo Courtesy Ita-cho Restaurant on Yelp)
Having thoroughly enjoyed our culinary foray into LA's Korean BBQ scene,
a friend and I decided that it was time to tackle Japanese cuisine, with some Yelp help of course. In search of decent sushi and authentic Japanese cooking, we set our sights on a small joint in West Hollywood called Ita-cho Japanese Restaurant.

The restaurant's decor was simple and elegant, though not as swanky as other places that I've driven past. It sorta reminded me of those mom-and-pop places back in Hawaii, with an added bit of Hollywood interior design know-how.

Despite knowing Japanese food pretty well, the menu took us both a little while to decipher. Attempting to capitalize on the Asian fusion movement, a number of the dishes, though based on Japanese staples, have been accented with exotic ingredients and preparations. We settled on a plate of the Wagyu Beef with Ponzu sauce [read: thinly-sliced steak with lemon-infused soy sauce] and Tako Karaage [battered and deep fried octopus legs]. We also had to order rice separate, which I did not appreciate at all.

When the food came, we were underwhelmed. The dishes, unbeknownst to us, were meant to serve as Japanese tapas, and were not enough to serve the two of us. In any case, the dishes were quite good. The Wagyu Beef was cooked medium-rare so that it remained buttery and tender, and was perfectly complemented by the subtle tang of the ponzu dipping sauce. The tako, though battered a tad too liberally, was tasty and not too greasy.

If I'm being perfectly honest, the restaurant was a bit of a disappointment. The food was better than average, but came in portions too tiny to enjoy and at too high a price. The atmosphere was nice, but the service was sub-par. A hit and miss, but great to be out and about sampling Japanese in LA.

Kanye Tells Stories

Pardon the influx of Kanye West stuff today, but there's no denying that he's got some very interesting projects on his plate. (Via Hypebeast) He recently appeared on VH1 Storytellers with an interesting set that really pushed the boundaries of his performance art. On the futuristic, minimalist set, Kanye laid bare some of the emotion that went into 808's & Heartbreaks while giving us some new interpretations of the classics. Aside from the off the cuff comments on Chris Brown and that shag, a great series of performances and some soul searching from today's hardest working man in the biz.

VH1 TV Shows | Music Videos | Celebrity Photos | News & Gossip

Flashing Lights

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Say You Will

How We Got Into This Mess.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

(via Philthy Blog) So much of the disagreement over the economic stimulus package relies on misinformation. Here's a brief and really engaging synopsis of how the world economy was flushed down the drain. May it provide clarity for a solution.

Louis Vuitton x Kanye West

(Via Hypebeast) More leaks of Kanye West's new sneaker-design project with Louis Vuitton have been leaked ahead of their June 2009 debut in stores. Some are just new colorways of old models (like the pink soles above), but there are also a few totally new designs. Kanye has said that he is considering taking a break from music to hone his design skills, and this may be his cup of tea after all. Something to fall back on...

Who's Tweeting?

I'm going to try to keep you all updated on who I'm following on Twitter from time to time. Celebrities, prolific tweeters, downright interesting folk.

New finds this week:

Ashton Kutcher (aplusk) - Actually tweets a lot about important social issues when he's not, you know, bragging about being married to Demi Moore.

Demi Moore (mrskutcher) - Like her husband, tweets about social action and is really really into her dogs.



Kim Fassler (kimfassler) - A blogger for The Honolulu Advertiser, she provides some great insight from a twenty-something-from-Hawaii-living-away-from-home perspective

Rainn Wilson (rainnwilson) - As an Office fan, how could I not? But seriously, Rainn offers some great commentary on family life and being a Baha'i.


David Gregory (davidgregory) - As the host of Meet the Press, you might expect Mr. Gregory to have some intern do his tweeting (here's looking at you Anderson Cooper). But this guy actually tweets. From the White House to Whitehall. Good stuff.

Any more suggestions? Pass them along!

Late Night w/ Jimmy Fallon

Jimmy Fallon made his premiere last night replacing Conan as the host of Late Night. I feel like the start of any series is always a bit awkward as everyone attempts to find their footing. The freshness of it all aside, Fallon (who I was a big fan of back on Weekend Update) did a decent job. I did notice that his delivery is more akin to Leno's than O'Brien's, save the paying-people-to-lick-things tendencies.

Favorite line of the night: Jay isn't leaving.

The Fact of the Matter

I publish this begrudgingly, believing that the issues that I am pressed to discuss here are not worth my dignifying them with a response. When attacked on baseless grounds on multiple occasions, however, I believe that it is necessary that I take a firm stance to ensure that the truth--not just what has been twisted, filtered and spit out--is aired. And because this blog is meant to be a platform for my personal, not professional, musings, I will keep this short.

In his "Is Travis Kaya Up to His Old Habits of Plagiarizing the CI?," Charles Johnson of The Claremont Conservative and The Claremont Independent recently leveled some pretty hefty accusations against me regarding an article I authored for The Student Life newspaper. Published Feb. 27, the article discusses Claremont McKenna's withdrawal from the QuestBridge scholarship program, which was covered by the CI on Feb. 14. Johnson, who wrote the CI piece, says that I plagiarized the article, which is categorically false and reveals, ironically, a lack of investigation on the part of the blogger himself.

Firstly, all quotes and figures in the article were the product of my own reporting. I was in personal contact with CMC Dean of Admissions Richard Vos. All quotes from Dean Vos come from my correspondence with Dean Vos.

Secondly, The Student Life explicitly credits The Claremont Independent for the reporting that it did in its Feb. 14 piece, saying that the issue was first brought to light in that publication. It is true that my editors at The Student Life assigned me the story after learning about it in the CI, and it was duly noted. It was relevant news that TSL believed warranted coverage in its pages, albeit from a larger Pomona and 5C perspective.

Thirdly, it is obvious when comparing the CI and TSL pieces that there are a number of departure points between Johnson's reporting and my own. TSL attempted to tackle the issue from a perspective outside of the confines of CMC where Johnson centered his analysis. I include commentary from Pomona College administrators and students, where the CI piece does not. I include pertinent budget information gleaned from Trevor Hunnicutt's reporting on CMC finances, where the CI piece does not. Just as the CI provides information that TSL did not include because it did not seem immediately relevant to our readership.

Please, Mr. Johnson, descend from your high horse to take a closer look at my work before you make hasty and possibly damaging judgments. Plagiarism is not something that I take lightly, and I do not appreciate baseless accusations of plagiarism being leveled against me on such a public platform. Perhaps next time you should do a bit more investigating of your own, Charles.

Grapevine Fires

(via Kanye's Blog) Here's Death Cab's newest video for 'Grapevine Fires'

350.org

(via takepart) I'm a sucker for cool animated shorts, especially if they're trying to get an important point across. The video above is promoting a new international climate change pact that will work to reduce atmostpheric CO2 to 350 parts per million. It attempts to quantify the uphill battle against climate change so that we can measure our progress. Read up on it at 350.org.