a day in the life of piano monkey

One of the most important moons of the year, harvest moon, came and went just a few days ago, on Wednesday.  While i was growing up in korea, it used to be a huge deal- families move across the country, a temporary migration for just couple days.  the small quaint country villages will be full of children and their children returning to the old roots, looking and finding what have happened since the lunar new years (another big migration day).   Much suppressed issues would surface, the in-laws and in-families in general dealing with all kinds of small daily explosions, inevitable really, when that many stranger-families are crammed into the living quarters.  There are much litanies of daughters-in-law about the works they must do without a single word of thanks, about husbands and sons who cannot satisfy either of their ladies and so on.  It is rather comical to think of all these small catastrophes happening simultaneously across the country.  I bet ...

Currently i am being hurled across the atlantic puddle, in a gigantic big metal tin can.  Funny enough, i never thought i would be commuting back and forth to europe this often. Okay, may be once a twice a year have been the norm while i was in school.  It suddenly changed last year: may, then christmas.  In june, then once again now, in middle of september.  And with another one already booked under the belt for the yuletide.  The power of human desire is strong.  Not only it ables the design and building of such machine as airplain, it also bring the gap of five hours (gmt-est) into a mute point at will.  Well, it does have a reasonable costs attached to it- the time and financial resources allocation would be the first thing that usually come up to the mind, but it’s a little more softer and fuzzier than that- it’s the simple human desire to be loved.  At whichever cost.  As long as the cost is not higher than the personal...

my parents own a dry cleaners and a laundromat, just like a good old first generation korean business immigrant family.  when i realized that there were koreans who immigrated to north america as non-business immigrant, it totally blew my mind. i was fifteen.  there were scholars, business transfers, refugees, all kinds.  but till then, for three years, all koreans i saw were either transient population (students, mostly) or entrepreneurship immigrants. theyve been at this business for a long time now.  from my age 12 to now, 31, for nineteen years.  so probably the longest job that both of them have ever held (my dad moved around job to job whenever he felt like it).  and by this time, though i hardly ever go in to help, i do have a good idea what would probably need to be done. one of the things is coin counting.  i think it is very silly thing to talk of, 'intensive coin counting.'  we  all had jars of loose c...

it's september; even more so than december, as a former student (i often would like to continue to be a student), the return from the summer break to another new calendar is very exciting and often emotional.  i suppose it's even more so because i have not really left the school calendar yet.  last year in banff, the year is structured in similar manner.  most of my work is not so far from university currently.  last year this time, i was thinking that by september 2010, i will be settling in a new place.  alas, with the luck of the draw, i am still waiting. though i have been living in canada since i was twelve, i still carry a korean passport.  while i was in high school and undergrad program, i never seriously thought about changing my passport as at such age, one tends to be a little bit ignorant about the political responsibility as a citizen.  the only difference between a landed immigrant and a citizen of canada is that i could n...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx9br5ISRpo the last of long wknd of the summer is on its last cusp on est, approaching the proverbial eleventh hour.  labour day weekend is always full of nostalgia and somewhat innocent good byes to the summer things, soon to become memories.  it is the wknd where one puts on a sweater while gathering around the barbeque, smoke of toasting corn dissipating with a hint of cool wind.  it is the night where the late skinny dip into the water graces the beautiful young summer tan skin with a shiver, little prickly goosebumps.  picking up the child from sleepy night protest with dirt between the toes, to tuck in, now with a thinnie blanket over the sheets. minnow have been canned in the big magic metal bullet across the puddle this afternoon, along with the low clouds and intermittent rain, on a late afternoon glow of the last day of the labour day wknd. the day he landed was one of the hottest day of the sum...