Hosive

when big world things happen, i often stop blogging about me to try to put the focus on those important issues. but as time passes, i return to share my story….

lest we forget…we do not live in korea….nor anywhere else on our whirl around the world….our base is new york city where one in a million things happen everyday. upon arriving back home, we affirmed these truths that we find to be self evident. we started with macbeth starring patrick stewart aka captain picard or professor x. blasphemy! he is a shakespearean trained actor who goes to be bed lamenting the fact that he is too old now to play hamlet. this is his true element. this is his calling. this is his destiny. this is in his blood.

and this is his fake blood. a bloody and crass macbeth….just as the bard intended it to be. there was gratuitous amounts of blood and bloody elements including a decapitated head and a pipe chock full o’ blood(i hope i didn’t give anything away). there’s also lusty and urine-y moments. bloody and crass….i called it wes craven’s macbeth and bram stoker’s macbeth but in reality, it was merely billy’s macbeth played correctly.

we sat in the fourth row center…that is the first row of seats that were not $300plus. in nyc, the first few rows are reserved for high rollers including the dude who brought the woman who could be his daughter, but i suspect she was not his spawn.

seated one row behind us were the actors who played worf from star trek: next generation and quark from deep space nine. theresa was stunned that i could recognize them without their makeup. i told her that i remembered it from something i read.

(because i wasn’t there, i can’t blog too much about it but)theresa and steph went to see they might be giants while i was…….

………at the nerdfest that is ny comic con……..here i am with comics god, alex ross…..dan snagged me a ticket for this signing which was the money event of the weekend. his work often goes for thousands and i hear tens of thousands.

otherwise, a somewhat lackluster show. i did enjoy some of the toys, movie previews panels from prince caspian, battlestar galactica and comic book mavericks. also my boy, ernie, was terrific as a volunteer info guy. i’m debating whether to go back next year.

i was hoping for some cool con exclusive toys. but nothing great. more about toys in a later entry. i promise to blog more.

i’ve also been spending a lot of time at the temple in the bronx for its last season. i got a mini plan in the bleachers in the hopes of snagging all star game tickets. the team has been mediocre all year….so playoff tickets look unlikely….though they looked out of it last year and still made it. it seems like a million years since the yankees were dominant and winners….but in reality, its only been 8 since we won and only 5 since we were in the world series. nyk’rs are spoiled brats.

the bleachers are a different world. there is no pc-ness here. swears and slurs fly around from the start and it’s nuclear hostile to fans of enemy teams. i wonder about the madness if they served alcohol out here. maybe that’s why they stopped. during one of the inning breaks, fans identify opposing team’s followers and call them homophobic epithets and question the origins of their sexuality! happy to say that dj, tom and andy did not join in. and me neither.

i wonder what the cubs bleachers are like.

somewhere kyuboem lee, grace choi and regina lee ahn are smiling. back in college, i would give the koreans on campus a hard time about their culture including their food. hard is understatement. i was scathing….terrible…merciless. i told theresa that if she heard me talk in college, she would never have married me. so when my korean classmates heard that i was marrying korean, they must have seen that as god’s galactic justice. going to korea for a few weeks? even better.

what will he eat? will he eat? will this be a 24/7/12(day)super-size me experiment? or super-shrink me?

i did not eat a single burger and only ate at one american place for the heck of eating some fast food korean style. for 99% of the time i ate korean food. most days we ate like this. at home. simple little dishes with rice…pickled this and that. small plates of meat. and i ate what was served to me. there was always something that i could eat and only a few things that i declined on.

we had jiajen mein once but only once…which most of my korean buddies would see as a cheat since its really a chinese dish even though i had the korean version. this was really good with hand made noodles.

at the korean folk village, i had this noodle in broth, kalgooksoo, with some korean bbq pork. it was a chilly morning so this was a good warm up. i slurped up these noodles as theresa nervously watched. all of theresa’s family was nervous as they had heard that i did not enjoy korean cuisine. theresa’s mom had called theresa’s aunt to brainstorm about foods i could eat and that she could cook. but i was doing fine.

we had a little bit of street food….as theresa has already noted, we were full almost all the time and didn’t have a lot of room for street food but here theresa’s aunt insisted on some sweet red bean cakes. she shared some with curious westerners unwilling to shell out the 1,000 won(1 dollar)on the bags. or maybe they were nervous about the whole buying food in the streets without authorized government health inspected blah blah blah.

i really enjoyed this: its a whole chicken stuffed with herbs, seaoning and rice in a light broth. it was also the first of many restaurants we went to where we sat on the floor. shoes were left outside, sandals and slippers were used for indoors and cushions for our booties were standard.

here’s my one american fast food indulgence. we had kfc in beijing so we designated this our official western food joint for asia. a little disappointing since the original recipe was not that herbs or spicey. the menu selections were rigid and i had to get cole slaw with this meal. and of course, it was overpriced. it was fun but don’t think i would do kfc in korea again. especially not with the other fried chicken options widely available.

bring on the bbq! after almost a week in korea, i wondered how many of these places i would get to see. theresa mentioned south koreans didn’t eat that much meat and going out for bbq were for special occasions. i’m guessing my arrival was special because we did go out for bbq….first, pork ribs!

…then the next night was beef…which is much more expensive and even more of a luxury! here’s some yummy marble-ly rib eye, my favorite cut. theresa’s family was really hospitable, generous and celebratory for our arrival.

with the help of theresa’s cousins, we found some bonchon chicken. this is the made to order stuff that is double fried for maximum crispness and minimum greasiness??? we were warned that it takes up to 25 minutes per order which is about an hour less than what it took in nyc our first experience with this magical chicken. but you know what else was less? the price! that’s what happens when you have original korean food in korea. the wings were amazing!

really, really good! we tried to find another one of these on our trip but it turns out this would be the only time. on the way to the airport for departure, i did see a kyochon chicken truck on the highway out for deliveries as if to taunt me.

at lotte world, an indoor amusement park, we had “typical” theme park food…korean versions. i had the pork cutlet with omelet wrapped rice. theresa’s nieces opted for the more american spaghetti. after the rides, we had some(i am not joking)booty jigae which is ramen, spam, sausage slices in broth. look how my sweet t loves the booty(jigae). i also love the booty(jigae). i cannot lie.

at the dmz…that’s right, the demilitarized zone between north and south korea, it was back to more familiar fare with bibimbop and bulgolgi suited for american tastes as the tour was run by the uso and the majority of attendees were westerners. i had a great time and unlike with kfc korea, i would go back to the dmz for more eats. maybe it was the thrill of possible nuclear annihilation or the potential threat of invasion that made the food taste so good.

we found another korean fried chicken place that we hear is really popular these days. it was different than the bonchon/kyochon stuff. again, the two kinds of familar flavors: garlic and the nebulous spicy. different but very, very good. strangely i found that the “spicy” in korea was much less spicy than the insane nuclear flavoring in the states. i prefer the spicy in korea….which might make me more authetic korean than my american korean counterparts.

another piece of korean food evidence…..the pangchon, korean pancake….is made with less seafood in korea(probbably due to expenses). i always choked on the tentacle saturated version i was served in the states and i always commented that the pancake would taste better without the overflowing seafood to which my korean american friends would scoff: who makes it like that? real koreans do! you ignorant korean wannabees! its your nightmare come true….I maybe more korean than you!

i won’t bore(or salivate)you that much longer. we made a detour to south south korea to visit theresa’s uncle on his farm and we had my first soondaboo of the trip, which is falsely rumored as the only thing i’ll eat. clearly i’ve been eating a lot of things and a lot of different things. though my favorite was clearly still bbq!

folks, i ate a lot. i think i gained weight.

somewhere kyuboem lee, grace choi and regina lee ahn are smiling.

in the interest of keeping the arts available to the common man, broadway shows sometimes offer a lottery for their front row seats at $20/$25 a pop! they take place a few hours before the show starts….you show up….drop in your name…and hope it gets called. t and i have already won for wicked and spelling bee. we paid $50 for a pair of seats at each of those shows…the row right behind us ran for $350 a seat! so we decided to try for rent before it closes in june.

they called all the names and we got nothing! theresa bemoaned that perhaps our luck had run out. i told her to wait. so we did. and the lottery dude came out and said someone had canceled…..could i have…..

….joseph tsang. our third straight broadway show lottery win! i seem to be good at winning at things in nyc while theresa is good with everywhere else: los angeles, chicago, boston, etc. i’m like locke on lost. i better stay on this island.

theresa already had tickets with a few girls from vision so i took patty instead! …..with theresa’s approval? i think!

i have a theory about how these lotteries work….after not winning the first two times, i noticed something and decided to try something out. three straight victories later……its not a guarantee but i think it increases our chances for sure. i’ll tell any friend who asks. or come to nyc and i’ll show you!

a few years ago, i watched a movie with q that scared the bejeezus out of both of us. that movie was election with matthew broderick and reece witherspoon. without ruining the (entire)plot, in the movie one poor decision negates…wipes out…cancels out a lifetime of right choices and good decisions. one of the highly respected characters in the movie does something out of character and loses his(whole)life as he knows it. he becomes a pariah. and it happens in a second.
immediately, q and i declared that we would never allow sexual sin to infiltrate our lives to destroy our ministries, work and futures.

but pride does funny things to you. power does funny things to you. money does funny things to you. you let things creep in. you think you are invulnerable. you think you are an emperor god. and you join emperor clubs.

but sometimes, someone comes along and does something that reminds you of vows you forgot……waking you up…forcing you to rethink a decision…..making you dodge a bullet…..a catharsis and you change your mind.

i am not innocent. i am not pure. this could have been me. my boy harvey says that given the right(wrong)circumstances, anybody can commit any sin anywhere. maybe.

i imagine what my life would be like if my sins were in print and broadcast on tv…….

is nyc all fun and games? sometimes. some weeks……..it seems like it.

here we are at the u2 3d in imax! in limited release across our nation…..and of course it is playing at the local imax near our home in soha(south of harlem). we invited vision folks and club vision but it turned out to be a romantic date. of course, we were first in line….however, we got there early not to get in the front row….but the very back…the very last row. imax and 3d makes front row dizzy land.

but we went twice and club vision joined us…..dave, pei li, weiling, steph, susan, some ocm folks and us! its almost as good as being in the front row of a u2 concert! it still does not beat the energy of live music but its worth watching….twice! at least!

but u2 concerts has always been about being with friends…not just the shows. its about reunions and creating memories with old friends from la to chicago to boston to philly to nyc to wherever our friendships take us in the future. and maybe soon in dallas with jaq.

here we are watching another tom stoppard play….last year, we caught the 9 hr trilogy of plays: the coast of utopia……we were again in the front row for this story of the downfall of communism, the power of music, the power of love and the power of the love of music. it was a breezy 3 hours and theresa liked it a lot more than last year’s marathon.

this is in part, in fact why to live in nyc: to see shows that only play in london and here. however, i wish i was smart enough to take it all in and process it. tom stoppard’s plays and other intellectual fare humble me. i wish i had more time to think on this level and read on this level.

jonathan came back after a long hiatus for cooking lessons. we made a fancy beef stew. i mean i ate a fancy beef stew that theresa, wendy and weiling made. as dennis and i waited, we ate our customary doritos and played wii.

these are always enjoyable. i’ve been friends with weiling and dennis for close to 20 years(ever since they were teens) and to have time to develop these friendships in a different city and as adults is a joy.

toward the end of the week, we made it down to the beacon for they might be giants! no front row for us this time but 4th row aint bad. the fun part was that they opened for themselves! they did two sets! the came out….had intermission….and came back out! they played a ton of songs which is good news for theresa. i only knew two songs and they only played one of them. but i did enjoy their humor. i wish my bands would talk more to us.

theresa will get to go to another tmbg concert designed for families in the spring….while i get my nerd on at the nyc comic con.

finally, we got invited to a fashion week post-show party. we went to a fancy schmancy lounge and sat in vip areas thanks to visionite, jo song. we got swag bags including one of the vip goodie bags. theresa had a few beers and i drank a few sips of some fruity drink theresa ordered for me. i even got to meet the designer, jo’s boss…..she was super down to earth and i didn’t even know it was her. she was mingling like a regular person.

some will ask why a pastor is in a place like this. as if there are only good guys and bad guys. only good places and bad places. stark black and white. but my reality is that i love people…and i go to where the people are. and when i was there, i felt my heart swell with love for people. for regular people. not just the bible nerds in holy ghettos. most i suspect who have poor stereotypes of jesus, pastors and faith. i hope i get to share with them a better vision.