Rising Stars Piano Series

I just got an email from AF about the new concert series she is launching in September. Can't believe she's had the time to organize all this, while having just had her second daughter and doing legal consultancy work! She and KY are a rare breed of super-moms. KY, who I saw in NYC, was juggling 5-hour conference calls with skittish investors to ensure that they wouldn't back out of funding her start-up after having just given birth to her second daughter earlier this month. Hats off to all these amazing women!

Anyway, wanted to plug AF's inaugural Premiere Performances concert series. She's put together a very impressive roster of young, talented pianists. Here's the line-up:

Ingrid Fliter Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Originally from Argentina, Ingrid Fliter (b. 1973, Buenos Aires) was awarded the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award in 2006. Ingrid has been making a sensation around the world with her spontaneous emotional style and phenomenal technique. This year's highlights include recital debuts at New York's Carnegie Hall and London's Wigmore Hall. Tickets are on sale now through Urbtix.

Javier Perianes Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Already a huge celebrity in his native country, Spanish pianist Javier Perianes (b. 1978, Nerva, Spain) is breaking out internationally and wowing international audiences. He was awarded the Gold Medal for Artistic and Cultural Merit by the Government of Andalucia, Spain in 2005

Alexander Kobrin Monday, November 26, 2007

The Gold Medal Winner of the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Russian pianist Alexander Kobrin (b. 1980, Moscow) has been lauded for his flawless technique and artistic sensibility. This year's highlights include a 50 date US tour, a UK tour with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, and recital tours in Italy and Asia.

Jie Chen Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Chinese pianist Jie Chen (b. 1985, Guangdong, China) is quickly establishing herself on the international music scene. Jie was accepted into the Shanghai Academy of Music at the age of eight, and moved to the United States when she was 13 to study at the Curtis Institute of Music on a full scholarship, where in 2006 she won the prize for best pianist of the year.

All concerts will take place at 20:00 at the Sheung Wan Civic Centre Theatre, 5/F Sheung Wan Municipal Services Centre, 345 Queen's Road Central.

Tickets will go on sale through Urbtix one month before the date of the event. Ticket prices are $360, $240 and $180, with discount tickets for seniors, students and disabled.

iPhone unlocked!!!

Here's the step-by-step posted yesterday by 17-year-old Geoge Hotz of New Jersey: Finding JTag on the iPhone. Not sure I'm feeling confident enough with my soldering skills to tackle this, but I'm sure a little cottage industry of iPhone-unlock services are popping up around the world as I type. And did I just hear the cash register ring again for Apple?

While I'm at it, just came back from a short morning run, just to the entrance of Stanley Park from Falls Creek and back. My brother and I were arguing over the distance we ran. When we got home, he ended the argument by logging onto MapMyRun and got the distance, just over 5.5km (my guess was around 4km). It's a pretty cool site that uses google maps. I even mapped the Bowen Road run in Hong Kong.

The weather in Vancouver has been absolutely glorious -- cool, clear blue skies. We were walking around Yaletown with Butters, my brother's 7-month-old, yorkie-poodle-schnauzer and came across some really stylish Kwigy-Bo outfits for him at Luv My Dog.

NYC Hotels: Uptown (The Lowell) vs. Downtown (The Bowery)

It might be a sign of age or that I've become spoiled and attached to certain conveniences, but as the years have gone by, I've found myself gravitating more and more towards hanging out in the Upper East Side. Back when I was an intern at Barbara Gladstone Gallery in my college days, back when the gallery was still in SoHo rather than Chelsea, when SoHo wasn't overrun by chain stores and when Dean & Deluca was hardly itself a chain, I rarely ventured beyond Midtown (and that was only to stay with a friend who was living there).

Fast forward a decade and some years later, and now I can barely leave the comfy confines of the 60s. I've been spoiled by MH's hospitality, where I've not had to venture more than a few blocks for my morning yoga or Central Park run and Starbucks. If I'm feeling more Continental, I head to Le Pain Quotidien and there's also Alice's Tea Cup, which serves up more hearty breakfasts. There are at least 3 yoga studios that I know of within a 2 block radius (Some Like It Hot and Jivamukti are my favoured studios). As for shopping, there's Banana Republic, Gap and Club Monaco when I'm in need of extra T-shirts and jeans or Madison Ave for gifts and more fashionable fare. All my doctors are nearby as well. For dinner, there's Daniel (the lounge is MH's canteen), Jo Jo, Fig & Olive. I can walk to all the museums I like to visit: MoMA, Met and Guggenheim.

So this time around, I decided I would try to find a hotel in the 60s. The closest I've stayed is Four Seasons (on 57th/58th). While I love the Four Seasons for the experience within the hotel (their signature scent, the VIP treatment and the roomy rooms), I'm not so keen about stepping out the front door and being in the thick of the hustle and bustle of Midtown Manhatten. MH had suggested Affinia Gardens, just off 3rd Avenue on 64th Street. But then I decided to check out The Lowell, just off Madison Avenue on 63rd Street; I thought it would be nice to be closer to the park. I had been hoping that The Lowell would be a more intimate (only 70 rooms and suites) Four Seasons in the 60s. Suffice it to say, I was disappointed. While the King-bedded room (US$550++/night) was spacious and comfortable, the hotel felt lifeless. This feeling was exasperated by the rather listless front desk staff who would barely acknowledge my presence as I walked by, dropping off or picking up my room key. The exception to this poor show of congeniality was the waiter at breakfast in the Pembroke Room and the bellman. But in general, I did not feel a warm welcome, let alone any real hospitality. Compounded with the grown-up, fussy Frenchie decor (think an abundance of silk fabrics, Louis XV-style furniture, canopied beds etc.), checking into the hotel was akin to visiting a very old family member where joy and smiles are checked at the door. This was actually one of the very, very few hotel rooms where I couldn't bear to stay in the hotel because it just felt like the life of me was being drained. And usually, I love staying in hotels.

Fortunately, my love of hotel living was restored when I checked into The Bowery Hotel. Interestingly, after my stint in Gramercy Park Hotel last summer, I had actually expected to enjoy Lowell more and not be too impressed with Bowery. But it was Bowery that made me smile this time. As expected, the staff at Bowery were better-looking than the staff at The Lowell, but they had none of the "I'm just doing this to bide time and pay the bills before my big modelling/acting/super-stardom break" air of Schrager hotel staff. They were all very sociable, friendly and helpful (when the bellman saw that there was some lighting equipment that did not belong on the rather large terrace to my room, he was very apologetic and arranged for maintenance staff to clear out the equipment despite my protests that it was not a bother since it was raining and I would not be using the terrace). The decor of the Bowery is mod-Vic, but in no way feels old. It's all done with a wink. There's some great details like the swirl of colours inside the closet and the crackle-glazed celadon tile in the bathroom. It was raining hard the next morning, and I didn't mind just hanging out in the room till check-out. It was a shame that the terrace was left unused, because it would have been great to have had breakfast on the terrace.

And I was amazed that the room, being only US$375++ per night, actually had such a sizeable terrace! Location-wise, it's not the Upper East Side. And when I asked for directions to La Esquina, I was actually told me to walk down Lafayette instead of Bowery, because the Bowery gets "a bit dodgy" in parts. Had it not been raining, I could have easily walked to SoHo. The gym in the hotel is not yet open, but there are gyms and yoga studios nearby. Granted, the walk around the neighborhood is nowhere near as gentrified as the 60's; you don't have the tree-lined, clean, wide sidewalks of the Upper East Side. There isn't anywhere I'd really want to run to. Barney's and the museums aren't within walking distance, but I suppose the amount I save in room rate can more than pay for countless taxi rides uptown and back down. More importantly, though, staying at the Bowery is actually a fun experience. But most important is that I don't feel as old as I feared I might be, that I can still enjoy life in the Bowery.

[NOTE: I did take photos of the room at The Lowell, but ironically, they all turned out too dark to post!]

Hamptons Weekend: Ross School, Lois Nesbitt

Am catching up on my posts in the BA lounge waiting to board the CX flight to Vancouver, which is running half an hour late.

Headed out to the Hamptons on Friday afternoon; the drive out took 3.5 hours. Much of Saturday was spent by the pool with HB & BM putting together quite the BBQ lunch spread. For dinner, NK had arranged for us to attend a Nobu-catered fundraising dinner for the Ross School. Dinner was excellent, especially considering that they had to bring everything in from Manhattan. The school was also the perfect setting for the dinner; as there were quite a few Asian-inspired interiors around the school. Ross School was founded in 1991 by Courtney & Steve Ross (former Time-Warner CEO). Looking through their brochure, it is exactly the kind of school I would have loved to have attended. The school's curriculum embraces technology in all areas of learning and its approach to teaching is inter-disciplinary and global in perspective. Most importantly, Ross teaches that learning doesn't just take place from textbooks or from within the walls of a school. There's an emphasis on community service and learning opportunities outside the school and abroad. Students are encouraged to explore their own areas of interests and intellectual enquiry. The Hong Kong education system could use a total revamp along these lines. At it stands now, probably only a handful of international schools offer a similar educational experience.

The most active thing we did on Sunday (aside getting the NY Times and my Dolce de Leche latte, for which I made BM drive me out to Bridgehampton's Starbucks first thing in the morning) was a morning yoga class with Lois Nesbitt at One Ocean Yoga. Lois, like Patrick at Pure Yoga, is a student of John Friend. It was a great class, felt very familiar and I got to work on my handstand. An interesting tidbit about Lois is that before becoming a full-time yogi is that she was an artist, writer and taught at Princeton University. Interesting career change, but I guess yoga is full of such stories.

The rest of the day (and weekend) was spent reading the Times at the beach. It only started to rain just as we got on the LIE to head back into Manhattan.

I heart New York

I always thought that if I could wake up every morning, go for a run, swim or yoga and then sit down to a big bowl of cappuccino, freshly-squeezed juice and crispy, brown waffles and sausages at a wonderful neighborhood street-side cafe with a copy of the New York Times and watch the world wake up, then that would be the ultimate Little Cream
Life. Well, this morning saw a slight variation. I woke up in HB's Hamptons house, went for a run down to the windy, pebbly beach in Noyack. Got back to a house that was still sound asleep, went and soaked away any aches in my knees in the salt water hot tub. Only thing missing is the breakfast and NY Times. I could try and make myself a coffee, but the Miele machine looks just a little too complicated.

Arrived in New York on Wednesday afternoon. [ooh! BM just woke up and offered to make coffee, yeah!] Fortunately, jet lag hasn't been too bad. Might be because I didn't sleep the night before getting on the 1015 flight or the morning Central Park run I did Thursday morning. Whatever it was, I've managed to stay awake and alert throughout the day since arriving.

Saw Iphigenia 2.0 (showing at Signature Theatre until 30 September) with AD & CS. I was interested because it's a modern adaptation of a Euripedes tragedy I had never heard of. AD told me afterwards that it was the second project he had to design for at Yale. He explained that it's actually quite an important play because it explains why Clytemnestra is such a bitch (she kills her husband) later on (because Agamemnon sacrifices their daughter to appease the gods so that the army can set sail for war with Troy). This version placed the story in the context of the current Iraq war. A good production, but took a bit too much liberty by changing the story to have the soldiers demand Agamemnon's sacrifice rather than the gods.

Breakfast is being served up now, so better get going...

- Sent from my iPhone

First T8 of the season!

Was going to write this post on my iPhone at IFC Starbucks yesterday, but for some reason, the keyboard doesn't pop up for the blogger content box in Safari. I could have emailed in the blog entry, but of course, I've forgotten the email address. So here it is, not quite live:

I love it when typhoon signals 8 or 10 are hoisted; it's like some higher power has mandated that we should all get a time-out. Other cities may get snow days, but if the snow is that bad, there's really not much to do aside from sit around at home and watch TV or surf the internet (that's assuming there are no power outages). Whereas typhoons are generally milder than a bad rain storm (we have rain storm days too), so it's pretty safe to wander around. Some people even take the opportunity to go surfing. The only down side is trying to get a cab. If you're lucky enough to get a cab, some cab drivers demand extra fare (supposedly to cover the lack of typhoon-damage insurance coverage).

I missed out on typhoon season last summer, so it feels like it's been a while since a big storm has hit Hong Kong. At around 2:30pm yesterday (just after lunch!), tropical storm Pabuk (where did they get this name?) gave the Hong Kong Observatory cause to raise the typhoon signal to no. 8 (10 being the next and highest). At 8, businesses shut and everyone gets to go home, supposedly for shelter. In reality, the mobile phone system gets jammed while everyone tries to call or sms their family and friends to set up typhoon entertainment. Once that's done, there's a mad rush to get from the office to the agreed upon venue. I took the opportunity to spend a guilt-free afternoon at the Four Seasons spa. I suspected that traffic would be bad and hailing a taxi nearly impossible, so opted to take the MTR to Central instead. I have never seen the MTR so packed!

Causeway Bay MTR station. Photo taken with iPhone camera.

By 6pm, totally relaxed and refreshed, I headed over to Zuma (yes, it's the same as the one in London) to join the yoga gang, who had all been drinking since 3:30pm. Which, fortunately for me, meant that I had arrived just in time to help them consume the bottles of Dom Perignon Rosé they were popping open without a care in the world.

Clearly, typhoon breaks are just one of the reasons making Hong Kong a much better place to call home than Monocle's recent list of 20 cities "that offer the best quality of life [for the Social Security set, I would have added]" (come on, Munich no. 1??!! Geneva?).