Posted in Opinion on February 3rd, 2012 by byronkho
Heard about these guys a long while back but never got around to looking them up. Finally did. Not bad. Rare to have a good singer who can rap decently. Questlove is randomly there playing an easy drum part – he’s just like I got 10 minutes, sure, I’ll play.
Hyundai’s new ad campaign involves some stuffy exec in the 1% teaching the rest of us how it’s done. It’s quirky, which is good for a marketing campaign, and the no-blinking one is especially memorable. By the way, did you know that P&G thought that social media was cheaper to produce and manage without enormous amounts of staff – as shown by the Old Spice campaign – so they fired 1600 people in their marketing department? Speaking of ad agencies and marketing… most of the more influential ad agencies in the world are owned by 3 major ad agency holding corporations (Publicis, etc.), so “creativity” is ruled by a marketplace with essentially just 3 players. Think on the problems that can arise from that, for consumers, clients and for employees…
Posted in Personal on January 31st, 2012 by byronkho
October 15: Julie’s Birthday at Chima. First time there – salad bar decent but Fogo’s a little better.
October 19: Pool with Perch Pub league at Tops. Also first timer.
October 20: Mrs. Feldman publishes a book of dog recipes! Release party at swanky hotel! Hors d’oeuvres served that are not for dogs!
October 21: First time at Independents Hall for the Barcamp pre-party. Very insular crowd mostly doing mobile apps. That’s fine… but… need more visionaries, less game developers. Right after: Headhunters with Becca Berkowitz and BNeenan.
October 22: BarCamp Philly all day. Some great lectures, also some good contacts… but again, only if I’m into making mobile apps. Or video editing. Hmm. Later that night, black tie Curtis gala dinner with Jessica Ciaramella. Coriolanus right afterwards. One of the few movies in 2011 that I actually fell asleep at.
October 23: Another amazing concert at Curtis. Then a pretty horrible Chinese movie with Corinn and Mike. I’m sure they were pleased. Ha! Who asked them to miss Headhunters?
October 24: Sacrifice, directed by Chen Kaige. A quality Chinese film, finally.
October 26: Happy hour at Revolution House. Decent beer selection, nice roof patio.
October 28: Korean revenge epic – The Yellow Sea. Decently exciting but pacing is an issue. And of course, no US release outside of film festivals, like most Asian flicks.
October 29: KBBQ!
November 1: The Ugly Duckling. 1 hour animated Russian flick. Heartwarming. A little repetitive with the use of the main theme (all Tchaikovsky) but well done all the same.
November 2: Margin Call. Eh, I guess it was decent. Kind of forgettable though.
November 3: The Destiny of Lesser Animals was my yearly foray into African cinema. The filmmaker is from Philly or something. Decent flick. Not entirely as deep as I would have like, and the sequences with the mute homeless girl felt a bit affected. However, it is a voice I see rarely, and for that it is welcome. After leaving Perfect Sense, I felt it was at heart a vehicle to see Eva Green naked. It had some emotional moments and an intriguing setup, but the movie was essentially a low-budget focus on how two people can connect despite losing all their senses, so that what is left is pure companionship. Evidently, they can lose hearing and taste and all that but they can’t take away the sex… I admired the ambition of the movie but that ending just cheapened the whole thing.
November 4: Me as a role model? I spoke to 5 groups of kids at a charter school in Center City about careers in online marketing. Got many questions about the Playstation hack – but then so did all the other panelists who did anything online. Ah, these kids lead such informed lives.
November 5: Homecoming all day! Watched the game! Sang the anthem on the field with Glee Club! Eat all day, party all night! Lots of alumni! Go Penn!
November 6: Meant to go see a session at Plays and Players but because Jess is fashionably super late, we end up going to Devils Den for beer.
November 7: The day where I sing Tom Lehrer at an Orpheus roundtable. I receive warm applause and many have tears in their eyes. I can’t tell if that is good or bad, but I suspect the latter.
November 9: Kickoff Press Reception for Bruce Montgomery Foundation! Accompanied Jeff Coon and then played background music in the penthouse library/conference room for one of those swanky law firms in the skyscrapers on Broad. If you can call them skyscrapers, that is.
November 10: Entrepreneurship Panel at Dilworth Paxson LLP for Penn Club. I get to answer questions about being an entrepreneur and what it takes to get successful. Since the crowd is mostly MBA candidates and lawyers, it’s a considerably more intellectual time than, say, the Career Day at that charter school.
November 11: Friday Night at Curtis. Jess has fun (I think?). Dinner at Dandelion afterwards (fantastic food) and then afterhours at XIX.
November 15: The Descendants. Fantastic movie. Rare that I enjoy George Clooney in a movie, since he usually doesn’t do much but his mildly charming bland whatever characters. Especially liked the uppity teenage daughter as foil.
November 16: Taste of Avenue of the Arts with Lorna. Interesting food from Broad St. restaurants, and a great jazz band. Lorna’s apologetic as she seems to think I should it be what – more swanky? It’s a cocktail hour. No biggie. And then Katie Herzig & Butterfly Boucher at Johnny Brenda’s! I got to spend a bit of time shooting the shit with Butterfly and she’s really cool. I never got into her that much (aside from that Bowie-approved cover of Changes) but she seems like she’s a really hardworking musician and really dedicated.
November 18: House concert at JJ Tiziou’s! Fascinating sets. Especially like Marc Silver’s live set.
November 20: The day where I see Faust done by the Curtis Opera theater. And just watch Act One before leaving. Had stuff to do!
November 24-27: Thanksgiving in Toronto. Mmm, Chinese food.
Nov 28: Orpheus audition. And I do fine.
Dec 2: Hang out at South Philly Tap House with Jackie and Jess.
Dec 7: Orpheus concert and afterparty.
Dec 10: Joe’s Crab Shack, Barcade and then the Barbary. Finally, David’s Mai Lai Wah. A long night of celebrating Mike’s birthday!
Dec 11: Jaime Laredo at Curtis 3 pm. Awesome violin work… and then drinks with the Turners at their wonderful old house in Old City. Still has the original glazed windows from the mid-1700s. 2nd oldest continually habited street in the United States! Dinner at Pizzeria Stella.
Dec 12: Dinner at Pizzeria Stella again! And then pool at Buffalo Billiards, as we can’t get into the screening.
Dec 13: Tavern on Broad. Hate that bar.
Dec 14: Pool at Perch. Where I win my first game against the 3 from the other Perch Pub team. It’s a long drawn out game and it’s a tight match all the way until the 8 ball. SCORE!
Dec 16: MI3. Ehh. Batman preview was interesting but the perspective at the Franklin made it a little less enjoyable than it might have been.
Dec 17: Sherlock Holmes 2 with Jess in Bensalem. I get to see Langhorne at night. It’s, um, hard to see. Decently entertaining (in hindsight, not as good as Sherlock on BBC, but… that’ll do, pig, that’ll do).
Dec 19: Messiah singthru at The Salon with Jessica Lennick. Love that place (and the salon programs), though I’m not coughing up $2 million to help save it. That seems a bit excessive, given the other properties I could buy at that price that would be much more profitable within 4-5 years. But I guess the owner knows what he wants.
Dec 22: Cheesecake Factory with Raquel, the Spanish doctor. She’s fun – but sadly, it’s her last day. Took Jenica to see Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Apparently vicious rapes and serial killers are not what she expected. Gotta love the sense of dread throughout and the production quality – great sound design!
Dec 24 – Jan 1: Cancun. Fun times: ziplining, ATVs, beach volleyball, biking, snorkeling, zooming across the water… Interesting people there too. Lots of Canadians. One Bostonian who lived on a country star’s yacht and got paid 100k a year to fish 3 times a week and wash the boat every night. The rest of the time he got to spend picking up chicks at resorts all around Cancun. Jenny: rebel without a cause. Good girl the first day, then found her smoking a bong in the lifeguard hut. Perfect. Russian models, mother/daughter tag teams…
Jan 4: Elise Corey leaves town to move to San Fran! Noooo! Party it up at Black Sheep.
Jan 8-10: VEGAS. Good times clubbing at Pure at Caesar’s, Marquee at the Cosmopolitan. Met Nelly after his act at one of the industry parties. LMFAO and one of the Black Eyed Peas was at another “secret” party. Tiesto was at XS the night before I got there (boo hiss). Sweet suite at the Venetian. Planet Hollywood for the first time and got in some buffet…
Jan 14: First gig at World Cafe Live! We got to do the whole setlist of Wars & Whores, as well as a couple new songs and some covers. Packed house… it was awesome. A lot of walkins who didn’t know us previously, so that was a surprise.
Jan 16: Formally a member of Orpheus!
Jan 21: Annual dinner at Orpheus is NUTS.
Jan 25: Jose Garces was at Curtis during the Curtis On Tour preview! Plenty of good wine, some GREAT music (especially that Paganini) and to top it all off – I won our last match of the round to complete a 5-0 shutout of the Westy’s home team. BAM.
Jan 26: Ben Franklin’s birthday at McGillin’s. Got to catch up with Tess and a bunch of others.
Jan 27: Phil & Anna’s engagement at Trestle Inn. Former sketchy dive burns down and they rebuild another sketchy dive. This time, with weird fully clothed goth gogo dancers on lighted boxes with tip jars in front of them. If you give them money, do they take stuff off?
Jan 28: Snowboarding at Blue Mountain with Christine and Ann, and also with Andrew and a couple of the other guys that boarded with us last time. Except we slowed no one down this time.
Jan 29: Jess’s birthday dinner! Good times out in Bensalem, and decent food too at Toscana 52. Drove Jackie up there from her place in Port Richmond. Haven’t been much to that side of town, and first time driving it, so it was a mild kick getting to see the area a bit more. Got a reference for a good kielbassa source… mmm. Black market Polish meats.
Posted in Personal on November 11th, 2011 by byronkho
In a hiphop frame of mind today. A healthy selection of “foreign” hiphop – from Canadian rappers (Classified is AMAZING) to Frenchies and Britishers and Jamaicans.
Posted in Opinion on October 28th, 2011 by byronkho
This pre-owned BMW ad ran in Greece. Ballsy… especially the syphilis afterwards.
Why you should eat horsemeat. It’s funny how people in the US are so delicate about eating horse and cat and dog, when they’re eaten by so many cultures around the world. I don’t eat “pet” animals because I’m weirded out about the taste and my own cultural familiarity with them as a non-table animal, but if YOU eat them, I find it no more abominable than eating any other animal on the planet. It’s not against nature – persuade wolves to stop chewing up deer and rabbits, and maybe you’ll be able to sway me then – so all those people who are so emotional about not eating horses, you can go bite it. Old racehorses are put down all the time as they’re expensive to keep up, have limited value as a pet, and are not too often used as petting zoo or riding school nags. What’s wrong with reusing the horse when they’re no longer valued by the community they’re in? To me, putting them down is just as “cruel” as eating them, and it’s a waste of meat that could totally feed a crowd of hungry people! Babe was a cute pig, but that doesn’t stop us from stuffing pulled pork in our faces at the family BBQ. Of course, humane treatment should be observed at all times when dealing with animals, and yes, there need to be health standards when dealing with meat products… if those are currently lacking in the horsemeat industry, then that’s an issue to resolve – but not a real argument against eating horse in general. After all that… I still find horsemeat chewy, weird tasting and generally something I’d usually stay away from. Like pheasant.
Justice Kennedy says this in Citizens United: “We now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.” Slate goes into why this is bad for the citizenry.
It’s a good political and legal analysis, but I would like to comment as well, from a simplistic generalized standpoint. I don’t know how anybody can claim that money from whatever source has no ability to corrupt, because that’s just stupid. Money can corrupt. It may not necessarily do so, but the possibility is always there. For a Supreme Court justice to believe otherwise is to show a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature.
Posted in Opinion on October 24th, 2011 by byronkho
I. Elitism
The Economist this year rated Dartmouth’s business school as Number 1, with Wharton coming in Number 15, with rankings heavily influenced by percentage of students getting hired after graduation.
From the Daily Pennsylvanian.
Yet, Wharton still churns out douchebags who make fun of Occupy Philly protesters by:
a) telling them to “get a job”, which is less easy than it sounds, and
b) “get in our bracket”, referring to the 1%.
Stupid. The kids who bothered to make fun from the balcony are only publicizing their douchebaggery (and hopefully, their names will be blacklisted from firms for such unwise public relations stunts on their own behalf) but also are rather idiotic. After all, didn’t the investment banks themselves lay off tons of Wharton graduates during the past several years (yikes, Bear Stearns, Lehman, etc.), many of whom moved back into their parent’s homes and are now working miles from Wall Street? And still being in school, these kids won’t know if they will be the % that are not getting hired after graduation (of which there certainly will be some, since Dartmouth is apparently more successful at ensuring employment) or if they will be among the % that are hired… and then fired. For being an asshole at work.
Plus, they’re not even in the bracket yet. Unless their parents actually gave them assets in their names or they were some sort of precocious genius already hired by the fat cats for being a financial wizard, all these kids are not anywhere in the 1% until after they graduate. Why? Primarily because the 1% refers to wage-earners. And wage-earners these kids are not:
1) They still owe all their loans back. A large percentage will have had loans to finance their undergraduate education which is quite expensive.
2) I-banking firms and other such institutions that “hire” Wharton undergrads for summer work and in-year hours typically pay nothing or very little. Those students are working at those places for experience, not cash. They may get pitched during their last year and given a large signing bonus, but… I think it’s a bit early in the year for that to have happened.
3) Their family being rich does not translate to the student either being personally rich or earning a wage.
4) The great majority of Wharton students are not earning $1.5 million a year, or it would be unlikely they’d still be attending Wharton. (Unless, of course, you’re a legacy who need not worry about keeping up the fabulously paid job while going to school, since that sort of job will naturally be waiting for them afterwards regardless. And by the way, Dartmouth happens to be very vocal about not giving legacies undue privilege in getting in. It must be true, since they risked losing alumni donors – and did.)
To those kids on the balcony: you went to Wharton for a chance at being the 1%. By family background, luck and hard work, you ended up able to get and (initially) finance a Wharton education. It’s not even sure you can pay it all back. So you’re merely one step higher on the ladder. Until you reach the 1%, you’re not the 1%, and you’re merely being hypocritical. And unfortunately, by being so crass about it, you show just how grasping and peasant-like you actually are. It’s just “not done” for the elite to be so crass in public; better to ignore the hoi polloi and do your pooh-poohing with the other fat cats in the private rooms of your Club. See, those guys know how to do it without getting egg on their face. Now, you’re just mimicking Marie Antoinette, who also spoke from a balcony: ‘let them eat cake’ proceeded very quickly to her neck getting mashed into cake.
Ahh, elitism. Not all people at Wharton and Penn are like these idiots, and they give the rest of us a black eye.
II. Afghanistan.
The local economy in Afghanistan seems to be made primarily of two things: 1) opium and 2) IEDs. Apparently, farmers all thru Afghanistan plant and then harvest opium; once that is finished for the year, they get hired out by the Taliban to make, plant and trigger IEDs. A military analyst pointed out that IED creation and maintenance employed 15,000 Afghanis – which counts as a definite growth sector in the local economy. Pair that to the $60 billion the Pentagon spends to combat IEDs, with a 50% success/failure rate. As for opium: the annual “legal” GDP brought in by opium since 2002 has fluctuated but is generally around 2 billion dollars – which is 1/3 of Afghanistan’s economy. That doesn’t include illicit trading or payment “in kind” via arms and intelligence from partners in Pakistan and Russia.
III. Steve Jobs vs. Dennis Ritchie
Everyone mourns Steve Jobs, but very few mourn Dennis Ritchie. Who was he? Only the guy that made Steve Jobs’ lucrative career possible. Ritchie invented C, a programming language whose offshoots run almost all of the popular consumer technologies out there. Objective C is the programming language used to run all things Apple. C++ and C# drives Windows. Android uses Java, which adopted a lot of C’s architecture. Ritchie’s invention has thus driven trillions of dollars in sales and encouraged decades of opentechnological innovation. Not to mention his creation of Unix… Jobs, in comparison, has only driven billions and perhaps one decade of gated innovation. Yes, Jobs made a few cool gadgets and a few funny movies, but his actual legacy pales in comparison to a Bell Labs engineer who did good work and then died from cancer in his home without any public fanfare at all.
Posted in Personal on October 15th, 2011 by byronkho
Emiliana Torrini in Iceland. HOT!
Not enough time spent posting, too much time spent doing. Here’s the recap:
September 17: Paintball. Went out to Jersey to hunt what Rainier Wolfcastle terms “the deadliest game of all.” First time, but I took a few people down with me.
September 23: Helium Comedy Club. J.C.’s friend hosted for some big comedians. Pretty good stuff. Except that waitress was TERRIBLE. Really now.
September 24: Alex’s Housewarming. Nice house. The inside renovations were awesome, and I don’t know how he managed to get the house with the renovations – must be haunted or something. Gotta be a reason for a sweet buy like that.
September 27: First meeting as new member of the Curtis Crescendo Club steering committee. Fun people supporting good music, and from all walks of life in Philly. Had a great time feeling officious with Susy Schultz Keller, Dean Vetsikas, Melissa Page, Anna Schuenemann, Bobby Towcimak, Marija Ugrinich, Steven Ujifusa, Madeline Adams and Elizabeth Racheva, plus a few others. Check it out: it’s official.
Toured the Lenfelt Hall building – broke in a piano in a 3rd floor rehearsal room, saw the amazing orchestra rehearsal room and then saw the 5th floor balcony. Drool. Saw the $300,000 window. Then Yards for Penn Club stuff. Cape of Good Hope: good beer. Met Sam Huntington.
September 30: Opening show for Opera Company of Philadelphia is live simulcast of Carmen from Academy of Music to our spot on the grass by Independence Hall.
October 2: Played a few solos for Brandon Grady’s last service as pastor at a church in the Philly suburbs. Good times. Did one of those Love Feast things where you wash your neighbor’s feet, you know, like Jesus did with his disciples. Used lots of hand sanitizer afterwards.
October 3: First rehearsal at the Orpheus Club. Lots of Dark and Stormys, and some good times filling out the Tenor 2 section. Lots of talented musicians in there.
October 4: Visited the basement of University City High School. Admire the tenacity of high school teachers in the city – yes, that’s you, Jim. Plus, he’s got Finale, I was able to transcribe a few songs from Wars & Whores while I was there. I get arranger credit. Oh, and we have a WORLD CAFE LIVE gig for Wars & Whores on January 14. You totally can buy tickets now.
October 5: Helped record a few arias with Liz Zell at Curtis. Fun stuff. Then dinner/drinks with Jessica Lennick, Zelly and Don Marrazzo (now executive director of Astral Artists).
October 6: Night Market in Chinatown with Julie Yannalfo and Cory Walker. Ran into True Trieu and Chippy. Skipped the beer line ahead of 100 people, WIN. Banana Leaf for dinner and then home, away from massive crowds.
October 9: Apollo e Dafne and Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot. Great performers. Alize Rozsnyai was a great Dafne (after she settled into her voice… a little thin for the first 10 minutes). Also great as Ilia during Idomeneo last season. And she’s only 22! Anna Davidson great as crazy Miss Donnithorne, rejected at the altar and the model for Miss Havisham. Ran into Don and one of the Curtis students, who days later I found to be a great violinist. I initially thought she was some high school student writing a report on the concert.
October 11: Classics & Cocktails at Curtis. Amazing. Some great (though slightly uneven) violin performances. I don’t like Steve Reich that much, his stuff sounds a bit lazy – but I’ve heard the percussionists before, and I know they’re good. Wonderful Boccherini to close out the show. Loved the cello work. Cello does happen to one of my favorite instruments. After the show, we head over to Barclay Prime where we get free drinks and appetizers all night. Fun. Met a bunch of good people, including Anna Schuenemann. Late night dinner at the Wishing Well with Anna and bf, who invite me to join their pool league.
October 12: Pool at Perch Pub. First game as member of new league! Won the first, close on the second and then some crap playing after. It’s all right – practice makes perfect. Nice people.
October 13: Meeting with Sam Huntington, then the TIPS party at G Lounge – where I fail to eat dinner and get a little toasted. A bunch of Cornell, Penn, Columbia peeps. Emilie Feldman is there, and Lorna came over to round out the party. Awesome night! Totally worth the $6.
From the last TIPS at Bleu Martini.
October 14: Priscilla comes into town. Zavino for lunch. Touring post offices. Footloose, Running Scared. Cap off a bottle of that Chardonnay that Mike has a bazillion bottles of.
