Cautious Optimism / February 24 2004

"It's 4:35 on the morning of May 13, 2001. It's either late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. At this hour, the distinction is less than concrete. I'm currently residing at a New York University dorm on the corner of Broadway and 10th street. In the morning, I'll be moving out. I'm still in search for a permanent home in this city. With every new residence comes places and people I'll miss. I don't consider this a good routine by any means. The deli around the corner. The chinese restaurant where I always order from. The only homeless man in New York City I don't mind giving money to. Most of all, I'll miss the view of the city I had from my desk as the sun comes up in the morning. I do regret that I never had a chance to photograph it.

Droning to the music of the Peace Orchestra, I've found myself lately to be switching between two genres of music: AsianPop (including mostly Korean, some Japanese and some Chinese) and DownTempo Electronica (Acid Jazz to Ambient to chilled out IDM/Intelligent Dance Music). In terms of the first genre, I don't think I can ever go wrong with S.E.S. (3rd and 4th). Other artists of interest include Boa, FinKL, Namie Amuro, Ayumi Hamasaki, Cecilia Cheung. Current obsessions include repeatedly watching the videos to Lee Jung Hyun`s "Heaven," FinKL's "You Wouldn't Know," Ayumi Hamasaki's "Evolution" and Namie Amuro's "Never End." Moving onto my current state of mind, I am ready and willing to listen to anything and everything Peter Kruder & Richard Dorfmeister throw out, that includes their K&D Sessions album and their side projects of Peace Orchestra (which I`m listening to now) and Tosca. Can`t go wrong with DJ Krush, some spicier tasting Towa Tei, the proverbial IDM/ambience of Boards of Canada and, when nothing seems to matter, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue masterpiece.

My theme song for the first half of my freshman semester seemed to be Cibo Matto's "Sci-Fi Wasabi." Every locale mentioned in that track I passed through every morning as I walked to school. They played here a week ago. I couldn't go since I had finals.

Here I am, late at night, drifting off into thoughts that are probably too deep for my own understanding. Somewhere out there, there are greater consequences for the tiny thoughts we think, yet we can never grasp the gravity of our imagination. I no longer want to be an astronaut when I grow up. Earlier this year, I would have told you a risk analyst at Arthur Andersen. But when the sun goes down and people are no longer around, all sense of certainty seems to disappear."