2009 In Question

Doing reviews (monthly, annual, whatever) is important. The first importance I learned as a child – replaying past events in one’s head exercises and strengthens one’s memory. The best thing you can do when going to bed is to replay the whole day you just had. Turns out a lot of people have difficulty remembering what happened throughout the day (sleepwalk much?). Second important feature of reviews is the strategic aspect. You look at what you’ve done, what you wanted to do and so on and so forth.

Judging from the Twitter and Facebook updates from my friends and their friends, it seems that 2009 was too much of a contrast year. Things were either awfully great or plain awful. Cute note: I remember at least 5 people saying things along the lines of “not ushering 2009, but kicking it out”, “good riddance 2009″ and so forth. Agreed.

While 2009 was a fantastic year in terms of things like graduating from university, landing a terrific job, coming into myself, kicking bad habits and acquiring new and good ones, the year had a lot of stress, strange conflicts and 0 European travels.

While I might remember this year as the year I graduated, visited Harvard for the first time, joined the iPhone cult, realized that indeed I need to pursue my dreams as an author and so forth, I will also not regret it being gone.

I can’t wait for 2010. I actually can’t wait for the Chinese new year, I guess that’s what I really want since that’s when my tiger turbo boost kicks in. Onward!

Quick NYE Post Before It’s All Over

2009! Ima gonna let you finish, but 2010 is gonna be the best year evar. In fact, because I am a die-hard optimist with an agenda, ALL I want to say is that next year will be better (in fact, next year will be better because it’s my year of the Tiger, and I am a ferocious one, so y’all better watch out, make amends or clear path), and you, 2009, were just the “will do sans anything more impressive” year. However, if I compare you to 2008 or 2007 and back, then definitely you were the best so far.

So thanks for being what you were, 2009. You were great in terms of career opportunities, networks built, friends made, randoms tossed, knowledge gained and maturity points earned. If I was even geekier than I am, I’d keep a massive Excel spreadsheet documenting hangover days year after year (you can have the idea free of charge, dear readers), and saying, Oh this 2009 year is good, I’ve been behaving so much better!

Thanks for all, but seriously, get the hell out.

And all the rest of you: please be careful on December 31, 2009. It’s the full moon lunar eclipse.

Books I Read This Year

December is for summaries and lists. I’m not doing any music selections (yet?), but I’ve been keeping track of books I’ve read. I had to recreate the list from memory this November, so I am sure I am missing a 2 – 3 books that I forgot about (not memorable enough? Too much information to remember?)

• Economics of Strategy was definitely for the Industry Analysis class I was taking in January. Again, this book features a picture of a pretty painting on its cover. Reminds me of the times I took a statistics class and each chapter in the textbook featured a fragment of this or that modern art work.

• -(Clickable image) Bukowski’s. Way too repetitive, sad and overflowing with erotic scenes. Got boring halfway through.

• – Ghosts, not a bad book by Cesar Aira. A poignant story about young and impressionable hearts, lots of magic, ghosts and hardships.
• I wish Someone Had Told Me That – girls were making fun of the author photo, and I  understand them. The author seems like a solid square, but his publisher and people he interviewed for the book, have both been helpful. Great kernels of experience.
• Housekeeper and the Professor – great book, a lot of math and humanity. I wrote a review.
• A Whole New Mind – positively inspiring, set me on a quest to find a masters program with the perfect blend of art and business. Daniel H Pink is really good, supports his ideas with references, and is an all around fun and important non-fiction writer.
• – DeNiro’s Game was not bad, mostly a boys’ book about badass youngsters in a struggling part of the world, salvaging what they can.
• The Sleeper Awakes – the classic. Interesting vision of 2100. What the heck, Wells was great.
• – Bonjour Tristesse was a little self-indulgent, but an important book nevertheless. It’s like an overpoweringly cliche French movie you watch on a Sunday afternoon in bed
• Pride & Prejudice & Zombies – hilarity!! I wolfed the book down, especially because I couldn’t be bothered to read the original Pride & Prejudice. Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters are next on the list.
• the medium is the massage – confirms my belief that McLuhan was seriously ahead of his cohort by many, many decades. His statements still ring true. Amazing.
• Choice Theory: A very short introduction – purchased at the Harvard store with the intention of learning to make better, rational choices. I make more rational choices now, but can’t 100% say they’re much better or worse. They’re just rational choice. (Which probably implies that they are indeed “better” than the irrational ones)
• Pnin – and thus my love affair with Vladimir Nabokov started.
• Lolita – serious lust, for little girls, for language. Best written book, ever. Nothing can compete. I felt all kinds of emotions when reading it, deeply, painfully and ecstatically. I’ve yet to write an actual post about it. and I will.
• The Eye – not the best work of Nabokov, but luckily it is short.
• Lunar Park – Bret Easton Ellis did really well in this one. If I read it in 2005, when it came out, I’d probably feel like everyone else who read it then and expected yet another repetitive party story (like his other books); or worse, expected something of an American Psycho saga (since so many people only read that book by him and know nothing more). There is an American Psycho presence there, btw, but also a good blend of real and unreal, of true and false. An intense and rapidly evolving downward spiral that gave me nightmares and even made me terrified of a potential toy in my hallway. Lulz, I told you I was an emotional reader.
• Miro: A life of passion – wrote a blog post about this. An inspiring story.
• Meditations in an Emergency – I can’t believe I let Frank O’Hara slide by for this long. He’s inspired me to write a new series of poems.
• How to talk about books you haven’t read – Pierre Bayard treatise for those who actually love reading. It makes a great gift for someone who loves reading and has a sense of humor. I also felt like I read a lot more books than just one because each chapter explores a particular literary issue in the context of this or that novel.
• Crush It – Gary Vaynerchuk’s high pitched to-do list for a successful persona-driven online enterprise. I was pleased to know that I already knew or did 75% of the things listed here. Learned about new services that I could employ and felt energized. Good guy. Fellow USSR-born import.
• White Out, pt 1 – Consumed this in 1 hour on a plane. I wish I brought part 2 with me, because I spent 3 hours watching TV on a plane instead of exercising my reading muscles. Dang. And on that note:
• White Out, pt 2 - Will read it before the year is over. Just an hour of my life, right
• Speak, Memory – Nabokov’s autobiography. Masterful renewal of Russia lost, of innocence gone, of the society that will never appear again. I love it. I fell deeply into it, and don’t want to raise my head and blink at bleak reality right here. I’ve 40 more pages to go, but I’m positive I’ll complete the tale before the clock hits 12 on Dec 31.
• Eating Animals – hurrying to finish this startling, well-supported case by Jonathan Safran Foer (fiction writer, eh), before the year is over (100 pages left), so that I could dismiss meat in the new year. In fact,  this Christmas I’ve been dealing with agonies over cruelty-full turkeys and cows. Bah. An illuminating read.

Note 1: I am utterly terrified that I haven’t read anything in Russian last year (besides e-mails). Really? This cannot be. I’ve half a shelf of Russian classics in my home, and I better get to them come new year.

Note 2: I may be missing a book or two, because I forgot I read it this year. Some books aren’t as memorable as others, and I’m sure I’m forgetting something.

What have you read this year?

Holiday Update, Mostly Food

I’ve been so busy enjoying the holidays, family and friends time that I have naturally not written any posts. There are many drafts, but I don’t feel like finishing (anymore/yet). There’s updates about books, updates about recipes, adventures, visits to the United States and all that.

Anyway, I will just show you some images of the food and feasts that I’ve assembled while visiting Vancouver. By the way, this visit has been the best so far. Just the right balance of old friends and family. I really miss my family while living in Toronto. It’s definitely not a reason to move back to Vancouver, just to visit more, or as the busy life allows me.

I cooked my first ever roast beef on Christmas Eve. Us Europeans celebrate the real holiday on the Eve of Christmas as opposed to on the day itself (I find I’m always royally spent by the time it’s the evening of December 25th anyway). The roast beef idea was inspired by Colleen who cooked a great one for me. Below is my 2.6kg creation, succulent, fragrant and utterly decadent:

For Christmas dinner I decided to take over the protein reins and assembled a chorizo, lemon, herbs stuffed turkey breast. Mom and I wrestled with the poor bird (who probably had a violent enough existence on the factory farms somewhere in the US), tied it up and sent to the oven for cooking. 1 hour and 2o mins, take note, you cooking birds.

Below is the colorcrossed and bound turkey before the oven transformation. And the untouched finished version. All guests ate their pieces. The turkey was accompanied by Roman potatoes, by the way. Finely sliced potatoes that you bake for 30 mins, then pour 14 oz of diced tomatoes with sauce over it, add basil, zaatar, sea salt and pepper and some sparse tomato slices on top. Bake for 30 more minutes, or until ready.

Now that I feel confident that I can cook any kind of meat, under the pressure of holidays, I’m really set in the kitchen. Big thanks to mom for letting me use the kitchen and trusting me enough with the big meats

Christmas dinner spread. First half was created by me (hors d’oeuvres mostly), Russian salads were my mom’s specialty.

Before December 7th Is Over

I made a promise to myself (masochistic in some sense) that I will top the number of blog entries written last year in December. I’ve to write about  14 more entries. Seriously, you want to hear about this? I can expose a lot more than one can normally allow a public blog which gets visited by grandmas and censored men in China.

Oh, okay, today Toronto’s Twitter and Facebook exploded in a flurry of snow pan-accolades. There was minuscule, FAKE snow falling down and melting before touching the mother Earth. I tweeted, “Must we resort to yelping ‘Snow!’ at the sight of extremely temporary nanosnowflakes? The ground is still gray.” As long as the ground is gray and defiled by the autumn, there is no salvation. But keep waiting, I’ll be the first to write an Ode to snow. God knows I wrote one to the stock market in 2005.

Last weekend was a great eventful deal of foreign speakers, preventative medicine, karaoke (I do a great rendition of Downtown, Purple Rain and Torn) and dancing till the wee hours of the night when all our energy broke apart the speakers (figuratively, but perhaps not, speaking). Faktory night on Queen & Noble was fantastic except for the $10 PBR, which we prudently shared like our ancestors might have back in the fields of Portugal or Russia (I like how our countries’ initials are neighbors in the alphabet too! ‘Tis important, it is, trust me). Anyway, I did my 75 minutes of dancing. Doing all that cardio in the gym does pay off when it comes to having to wiggle on the dirty warehouse dancefloor with all you’ve got. I’ve way too much energy, and I revel in that fact. Eat it.

OK, go listen to António Variações here  to make yourself more cultured: Dar e Receber

Foodie April Calendar

Here are some exciting holidays that you may never heard of! I personally can’t wait for the bird day on April 8, because I am getting two budgeriars (a.k.a. parakeets or budgies) tomorrow

April 1

• National Sourdough Bread Day

April 2

• National Peanut Butter & Jelly Day

April 3

• National Chocolate Mousse Day

April 4

• National Cordon Bleu Day

April 5

• National Raisin & Spice Bar Day

April 6

• National Caramel Popcorn Day

April 7

• National Coffee Cake Day

April 8

• National Empanada Day
• International Bird Day

April 9

• National Chinese Almond Cookie Day

April 10

• National Cinnamon Crescent Day

April 11

• National Cheese Fondue Day
• Dandelion Day

April 12

• National Licorice Day

April 13

• National Peach Cobbler Day

April 14

• National Pecan Day

April 16

• National Eggs Benedict Day
  

April 17

• National Cheeseball Day

April 18

• National Animal Crackers Day

April 19

• Garlic Day

April 20

• National Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Day

April 22

• National Jelly Bean Day

April 23

• National Cherry Cheesecake Day

April 25

• National Zucchini Bread Day

April 26

• National Pretzel Day

April 27

• National Prime Rib Day
• It’s also a Write an Old Friend Day, so write that friend.

April 28

• National Blueberry Pie Day

April 29

• National Shrimp Scampi Day

April 30

• National Oatmeal Cookie Day

Top 10 Parties Of All Time

at Space, 2008

I present to you my favorite parties of the past 5 years (since that’s when I started dipping into the scene). The type of an event you talk about for weeks after, revel in the photos/videos and wish you could do it over & over again.

1. Carl Cox at Space, Ibiza, Spain, August 2008. Function 1 sound system, tons of happy people everywhere, amazing beats, all in the legendary Ibiza! I don’t need to describe too much.

2. Egyptrixx, Alias et al. at the Palms Out Sounds CMJ showcase, New York, 2008. Not only the quest of getting there with friends was a blast, but the non-stop heavy beat danceathon till 4am was a pleasant way to kill the October night. Oh yes, it ended with a breakfast at 5am.

3. Housemeister & Modeselektor at Igloofest, Montreal, January 2009. It was an amazing outdoor experience in January at -15C, complete with running into Vancouver acquiantances and dancing with a giant pink rabbit, as well as videotaping the fun, falling in love with techno for the n-th time and bartending comrades.

1. 

   Watergate, Berlin. 5am

4. Tresor and Watergate, Berlin, August 2008. Both of these parties are at par and happened few days apart. Tresor “never sleeps”, and is a scary former power plant – I clearly remember walking in the basement towards utter darkness, but towards the heavy sounds of techno, knowing I was certainly walking to a right place. Watergate was a blast with Krystel & Gerald with sunrise on the canal, and random guys from Chicago gifting us roses.

5. Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman, Vancouver, October 2005. I went by myself and met a million people, got a pass to get on stage and had Richie’s aunt (!) videotape me dancing. I also drank her champagne and ended up at the afterparty where Richie spun. Pretty random and advanced for Vancouver town.

6. My 20th birthday party, Vancouver, July 2006. It started with the longest Japanese Izakaya dinner with friends – first came the squares, then mid-funsters, then rockstars. We ended up at Shine night club and I told Paul Devro that it was my birthday and that I bought the dress I was wearing earlier that day at Dadabase, so he gave me a bunch of drink tickets. 6am bed times after whole lotta fun with close friends.

7. Ellen Allien, Mod Club, Toronto, September 2006. “Last night a DJ saved my life” is exactly how I felt about that night. I’ve been in love with Ellen for few years then, and seeing her few feet apart was unbelievable. Plus, I met an amazing dance team and made new friends in a city I just moved to!

8. Black Ghosts, Wrongbar, Toronto, July 2008. I was extremely tired that evening, but Egyptrixx and Alias dragged me out to an amazing show. I was impressed with live singing and mixing, old beats and crazy rave tunes. Even though I never been to a rave, I felt like I did that time. Great workout, too.

9.Bodyheat party, San Francisco, June 2007. My friend Logan threw a lot of Bodyheat parties back in 2007. We drove from Los Angeles that night. Arriving at 3am, we hopped in just in time for super drunk people to depart and diehards to kick it.

10. Running amok with Michael Leyton, San Francisco, December 2005. The first time we met, we went to a BYOB Mangosteen place, then went to Japantown and stole an American flag after some drinks, explored SF in a car, then I persuaded my way into some cheesy club (being underage), where we danced hardcore to 80′s rock music, screaming “We want techno!” It ended with Michael crashing his car.

2009 Goals

1. Make health and fitness my top priority
Tactics: personal trainer, planning my meals, scheduled food intake, not eating out, and running regularly.
2. Make fly career moves
Tactics: do my best during the internship that starts in a week, kick serious buttocks in the Industry Analysis class, read literature on Advertising, blogs, meet relevant people and pick their brains, keep up with the hype.
3. Go back to Europe (Czech Republic, Germany and Greece). I can’t wait to go to Greece – parents’ friends have a house in Athens. I can actually see Sparta, Crete and emerge, like Venus, out of the foam. Eat perfect souvlaki and keep Dionysus at bay.
Tactics: save, save save, flight alerts.
4. Start meditating
Tactics: thanks to M for a wonderful introductory lecture. Start slow, practice, dig deeper, take the trash out of my soul.
5. Get through that pile of Russian classics that’s been growing on my floor.
Tactics: read when commuting, read before bed (goes well with #3 goal)

End of Semester Musings

The semester ended on a very positive note. In fact, the last 4 months were the most productive in 2008, most positive and great – except for the strip between mid-Nov to mid-Dec: never again. I established relationships with my professors (3 out of 8 all time favorites are from this term), finally figured out what shape my career should take – accounts in the advertising business or strategic planning, particularly for creative ventures. God knows creative folk need help with directions (love y’all). Last semester was actually the best semester one, school-wise and life-wise. Marks were: A+, A, A- and B. Pretty satisfying, considering I didn’t study for the Int’l Mkt final, and got a B, and I pulled myself out of the B zone in Ethics in Finance. In fact, that class was one of the best ones I took, thanks to the amazing prof Allen Goss.

I leveled out and gained some perspective; I don’t take no for an answer and don’t feel lost at all. I’ve thrown out skeletons out of my closet and become more honest than ever before. I stopped wondering what this person’s and that person’s opinion of me would be if I did this and that. I am my own kind of person, I’ve done my inventory, and I patiently wait to break bread with my nearest and dearest (R, W, H, B, T, R, P, M, R in particular!).

I’m ready to hit the ground running and I cannot wait for the next year to start. Two thousand and hate is over, that ridiculous, cleansing, all-encompassing year, and now it’s time to conquer the next one. All my dreams will come true, and there is not a single thing I won’t be able to claim as my own. Look out, two thousand and mine! Sneak peek:2010 is to explode, considering it’s the year of the Tiger. And guess who’s the tiger here.