“Every time somebody opens their mouth they have an opportunity to do one of two things – connect or divide. Some people inherently divide, and some people inherently connect. Connecting is the most important thing, and actually an easy thing to do. I try to make a connection with someone every time I talk to them, even if I’m firing them. Because a connection can be made. People can be treated with respect. That is one of the most important things a leader can do, is make everybody understand that we’re all involved, that we’re all on the same level, on some level. I’m shocked that there are so many people that live to divide. Whether it’s to divide people from each other, or from themselves – but it is a constant in everything. Trying to make a connection with somebody.” — Joss Whedon

I’m back from Seattle.

What a weekend. I went to Vienna Teng’s concert at Freight and Salvage on Saturday. It was an experience unlike any other, a) to hear her music and b) to hear her perform live. I mean, I’ve heard a few of the “great” classical pianists play in big stuffy concert halls, but it’s totally different to hear contemporary and unique music in a small, local venue from a talented musician.

What was interesting was when I was waiting in line for the bathroom, Vienna came out of the backstage room and waited next to me for the lady’s room (the lady’s line was really long) so we had a brief little chat about nothing in particular.

She stayed long after her performance to sign autographs, and when I asked her for advice for amateur composers like me, she said simply to be patient - that she wrote a lot of bad songs before the good ones, just be patient, keep at it and you’ll get there. Simple, good advice.

Sunday was fun too. Trang invited me to a BBQ down in San Jose, which was lots of fun. Marie showed me how to make deviled eggs (or at least Marie-style paprika-mayo-deviled-like eggs) which turned out pretty good actually. Mike was so funny, he couldn’t stop eating them, I think he had like 5 and then got a tummy-ache.

Improvisation - 2003-06-02
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Latest drawing. Pencil on 5″ x 7″ sketchpad. I also have a colored version, which I’ll put up sometime.

I was messing around with my digital tablet and decided to color one of my old drawings of Utada Hikaru. Of all of my online stuff, this pic is copied the most… a pretty big number of people have linked or used it in their web pages. This one came out with an interesting color configuration, I’m not sure how I got the tint that I did, but it’s pretty modern, and indicative of the style of photography that represents Hikki’s brand.

Evanescence - Bring Me To Life
Andy Lau - “Smile”

My next art project is looking to be a portrait of the Buffster from the season finale, though the study I have now doesn’t have that certain edge, so I’m still looking. There are other possibles, like a scene between Ross and Rachel from Season One.