I love this time of year - I am always filled with optimism and a great sense of excitement as to what the new year might bring.  Although I have long dropped the tradition of making New Year’s resolutions, as they never seemed to be important enough to remember a week later, it is this feeling of optimism and goodwill that I hope to sustain and inspire me throughout the 12 months of 2009.

So with this sentiment, Happy New Year!  I hope 2009 brings you much love, joy, and success - and hopefully the Parker Quartet to a city near you:)

(Well, nothing was really literally lying underneath it as the 1 and a half foot tree was placed on top of a refrigerator - but you get the gist).  I received some nice clothes, a new electric shaver, and, my personal favorite, a 32GB iPod Touch!

After the exchanging of gifts and a traditional meal of dduk-guk (rice cake soup), our family loaded up the car and drove cross-country to Busan, South Korea’s second largest city, where my parents grew up.

Now, when I say cross-country, it sounds rather impressive, but it is approximately only 204 miles, as the crow flies.  Korea the peninsula is a small country, made even smaller by the fact that it is divided between the North and the South.  South Korea measures about 100,000 square kilometers, or roughly 38,600 square miles, making it a bit larger than the state of Maine.  Seoul is at the very north of South Korea; Busan, at the very south-eastern tip.  Flying time is about 30 minutes - driving, without traffic, took us about 5 hours.

This was the first vacation we had taken together as a family in about two years, so we were all full of high spirits and enjoying each other’s company.  My dad and sister took turns driving (no amount of begging, pleading or cajoling convinced them to allow me to drive) through the Korean countryside, which, I was surprised to see, was quite rustic and beautiful!  Most of the society in Korea is centered around the major cities, so the countryside is all rugged mountains and farmland, with some small farming and fishing communities in between.  Such a change from the hustle and bustle of Seoul, one of the biggest and fastest growing capitals of the world.

We spent two days in Busan, taking in the sights, revisiting places where my mom and dad had frequented.  We visited their favorite restaurants, their favorite dating places, and even took a small boat ride where my dad used to go swimming when he was a kid.  Here are some highlights from the trip:

This is the view from the room my sister and I shared - we stayed at the Westin Chosun hotel, a Busan landmark.

Here’s the same view, toward sunset.  Even though the water was probably freezing, there were a couple of  occasions when we saw a couple guys in nothing but Speedos swimming.

This is a ‘crystal piano,’ created and designed by the Schimmel Company.  It sits in the lobby of our hotel and is actually quite frequently used.  Our first night there my sister and i sat in the lounge drinking and were surprised to see two Russian musicians, a cellist and pianist, entertaining the guests.

Our first night, we went out to a sashimi - hweh, in korean - place.  Busan is a port city, and so seafood is its specialty.  Above is the ‘before’ picture of our dinner:)

This was our first course - fresh squid, kelp, octopus (still squirming, on the right) - all freshly caught that day.

And here is the ‘after’ picture:

Delicious.

Here’s the boat ride that we took our second day of vacation.  This is the cove where my dad supposedly played when he was a kid - now taken over by the tourism industry, its waters are still pristine and clear, and there are stalls where merchants strip and sell meals of fresh line-caught fish.

The following phots depict what, for me, was one of the main highlights of the trip - a trip to the fish market!

Near the entrance to the market - this is a vast, indoor structure.  On the first floor, customers can choose whatever catches their eye - then they can trek upstairs and wait while the fishmongers slice, dice, fillet or cook their meal for them.

Here’s a closer look:

Here is a collection of abalone, sea scallops, squid, mussels, sea conch oysters, etc…

This..  I don’t even know.  It’s some kind of sea worm…  Gross.  Some things even I will not eat.

Here are some small octopus - or cuttlefish?  Frisky, ill-tempered things…  A couple of them popped right out of the water, and one even tried to squirt some water at me.  I would not want to be in a tank with them alone…

Here’s some saltwater eels…

And what’s a fish market without any fish..?  Those guys have a lot of meat on their bones mmmm…

Of course, aside from everything pictured above, there were a huge assortment of other fish, as well as starfish, sting rays, small sharks, and some things that I don’t even want to know the names of, let alone eat!

I hope that everyone is enjoying their winter holiday as much as I am!   Merry Christmas/Happy Hannukah/Happy Kwanzaa/Happy holidays - or, as I saw online somewhere, Happy Chrismahannukwaanzikah:)

Nevertheless, I woke up early the next morning and took the short shuttle over to San Francisco airport - ready to face any new obstacle in my path.  You can imagine my feeling of dread and trepidation when, about an hour before my flight was scheduled to depart (on time!), the flight attendant at the gate got on the mike and started rattling off a long list of names, starting with mine first, to come up to the gate.

The bad news was that they had overbooked the flight and I was no longer able to sit at my assigned seat.  The good news?  I was bumped up to prestige class! (there are three classes: economy, prestige, then first)  This is always a great surprise for anyone, for any flight, but for a flight that takes 13 hours, and to have gone first from missing my flight, then to being on standby, then to having a confirmed seat, only to have that upgraded to prestige class - this was an unprecedented Christmas gift from the airlines.

This was only the second time in my life that I had had the privilege of traveling in such comfort - the first time was almost 10 years ago, when I had used my airlines miles to upgrade to first class, on a flight from Seoul to New York.  Now that I was much older, I was able to appreciate all the things that Korean Air had to offer - from a full menu to a full bar, which included 5 different bottles of wine, including among them a fine Bordeaux.  Here is a chronicle of my journey, through pictures:

(left: photo courtesy of Koreanair.com)

I love this airline - great service, beautiful flight attendants - it has always filled me with a great sense of pride and patriotism.

I couldn’t help taking this picture - I felt so special:)  “Mr. Kim, please proceed to the door on the left.”

These are the seats in prestige class - the seats are esconsed in these little ‘pods,’ which allows the chair to recline to up to about 160 degrees.  There is enough room for an ample-bodied person to sit (or lie) comfortably, as well as continuous attention from the flight attendants, a 13″ screen (20″ for first class), two separate bathrooms for the 21 people in my section….  it’s almost a waste of money as all this comfort only makes you want to sleep!

Here is the left armrest - on the lower part, you have the three basic settings - upright, reclined, and fully pronated - and as for the main part, you can (electronically) make incremental adjustments to fit any position, temperament, or comfort level.  Sure beats that one small round button you get in coach!

This is the first course (three courses in all) from the first meal - eggplant drizzled in olive oil, capers, grilled shrimp, and scallops.  It is hard to imagine that the meal shown in the picture above was enjoyed from 30,000 feet up in the air.

This is Korean Air’s signature dish - bibimbop. (literally, “mixed rice”).  Fresh (at least they tasted fresh) vegetables, hot steaming rice, and monkfish stew - add to that some hot sauce and sesame oil and you have one happy customer.

There was dessert too - a choice of chocolate or Hagen-Daaz ice cream.

And finally, before we landed, lunch, whose first course consisted of a salad with slices of pink grapefruit, cashews and other stuff, along with your choice of 3 or 4 different types of bread.  And for the main course, a hot steaming bowl of japanese udon, perfect to lull you back to sleep for another two hours.

And, if by chance you get hungry in between the two main meals, they offer to cook you up a bowl of ramen, whenever you wish.

Along with all this, each seat has a power outlet for laptops and an Audio & Video on Demand system (AVOD) that I enjoyed to my heart’s satisfaction.  The AVOD offers over 40 feature films, (Hollywood, Korean, Japanese, and ‘foreign’), about 60 short films, plenty of music channels, and, if I remember correctly, over 50 music albums, as well as news and the GPS tracking system - so you can track, by millimeters, how much farther you have to go.

All in all, it was a great experience, to be so pampered and waited upon by a knowledgeable, attentive (and pretty!) staff, that it made the 13 hours from San Fran to Seoul much more enjoyable and comfortable than I could have ever imagined.

In retrospect, the one thing that made all this possible?  The absence of my cello!!  No way that the airline would have bumped my cello up to prestige…!

As great as the ride was, boy is it great to be home!

As we all have experienced at one time or another, traveling, especially these days, and especially during the winter holidays, is not something that you should expect to go smoothly!

My itinerary was especially rather complicated, as I had only bought my tickets for home about three weeks ago.  I left Minneapolis on a 6:30 a.m. flight (after staying up the whole night, no easy feat anymore at my 26 years..),  and arrived in Denver only to find my flight to San Francisco delayed for two hours.  And when I finally arrived in San Francisco, I had missed my Korean Air flight to Seoul!  Touching down at San Francisco on my flight from Denver, I actually saw my Korean air flight queued up and taxiing on the runway.  What a slap in the face!

This was the scene in front of my gate at Denver.  What a zoo…!  A lot of cranky travelers…

But, I’m trying to make the best of the situation - at least the weather here is much warmer and there is no snow on the ground!  I walked around South San Francisco, where my hotel is, a little bit, and amused myself by people-watching and finishing my christmas shopping.

California never ceases to amuse me - I feel that totally opposite things co-exist side by side.  Beautiful and sunny, but with horrible pollution.  Glamorous and exciting, yet slightly sordid.  (but then again, cali is pretty big - maybe I’m thinking mostly of southern California?)

Check out these two pictures:

Here’s a huge inflatable Santa with his electrocuted reindeer, waving at the hot tub at my Comfort Inn.

And then there’s the plastic glowing Frosty the Snowman, with decorative lights wrapped around the long poles of palm (?) trees.

Or there’s bright red and gold Merry Christmas banner I saw decorating the inside of a Buddhist trinkets store.

Gotta love it.

If all goes according to plan, I will be back in Seoul tomorrow, where banks offer cash prizes to all its customers if christmas day turns out be ‘white.’  Leaving one country’s craziness for another’s… ha!   Please send all positive thoughts my way - and here’s hoping that all your holiday travelings goes a lot smoother than mine!

“A Charlie Brown Christmas”

The Roots “Rising Down”

Wu Tang Clan “Eight Diagrams”

Diana Krall “The Look of Love”

Diana Krall “Christmas Songs”

Cleveland Orchestra/Dohnanyi: Brahms Symphony nr.1

Boards of Canada: “Music Has the Right to Children”

Leila Josefowicz/Dutoit and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal: “Prokofiev Violin concertos”

Sparklehorse: “Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot”

Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Barenboim: “Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet”

Paco de Lucia - flamenco guitar

Cedar Walton: “Latin Tinge”

Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton: “Knives Don’t Have Your Back”

Jessye Norman: Brahms “Zwei Gesange” lieder

Yo Yo Ma: “Silk Road Journeys, When Strangers Meet”

Mariah Carey: “Christmas album”

Sigur Ros: “Agaetis Byrjun”

Minnesota Public Radio

WGBH Boston

Rachmaninoff: “Vespers”

The first week’s concerts that we played were more of a traditional program.  We were joined by conductor James Gaffigan, as well as the great violin virtuoso Leila Josefowicz.  It was great to see Jimmy again - we had crossed paths during the early years of my education the New England Conservatory.  During my senior year at Walnut Hill School, when I was playing in Benjamin Zander’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, Jimmy Gaffigan was, I believe, finishing his graduate studies at the school - he was Ben Zander’s first conducting fellow, and that’s how we first got to know each other.  I remember Jimmy as being a very fun, enthusiastic and quirky guy, but who took his work very seriously and with great focus - it was nice to see that things hadn’t changed!  Since those early years in Boston, Jimmy had moved on to assistant conductor of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, assistant conductor of the San Francisco Orchestra, as well as being guest conductor to symphony orchestras all over the world.  After being immersed in the career path of a string quartet, it was fascinating to observe the different path conductors must take to build a career.

I had the great fortune, after one particularly strenuous rehearsal, to grab some drinks with Jimmy, Leila and Steve Copes, the concertmaster of the SPCO - to be perfectly honest, at first I was a little bit intimidated to be in the company of such great artists, but, especially after a few drinks, it was fun to see that even big-time soloists, concertmasters and conductors are perfectly normal people, with their own unique brand of humor, idiosyncracies, and skeletons.

The first two concerts on the week of December 9 were with Leila - she performed Thomas Ades’ relatively new violin concerto - a dense, comples piece, for the solo violin but also for the orchestra as well.  I’m not sure I totally understood the piece, even after a few rehearsals and two concerts, but I do know that I was very much enthralled by Leila’s playing - strong yet supple, always imaginative, and with a beautiful, rich tone.  The difficulty of the music seemed to evaporate underneath her confident, commanding presence.

After those two concerts, there followed a slew of performances that were geared more for the i-go-to-orchestra-concerts-on-the-holidays crowd - almost every day, the orchestra members drove all around the twin cities, presenting a series of neighborhood concerts.  It was fun, the audience was always packed, and the response was always enthusiastic - however, if I hear Resphigi’s ‘Adoration of the Magi’ or Mozart’s incidental music to his ballet ‘Idomeneo’ one more time, or any more Strauss (son or otherwise) waltzes, i think i’ll cry…

This past week really drove home to me what life in an orchestra would be like -  these guys got back from a tour of Northern Europe after Thanksgiving break, and hit the ground running!  I believe that our first rehearsal for these concerts was the day after they got back - some of them hadn’t had a chance to even touch their instruments before that, and most of them were all suffering from jet lag.  But they’re all pros…  i give them all mad props.  We will see you in February, when we are slotted to play another cycle….

Did I mention that winter hit Minnesota with a vengeance during these past two weeks?  If driving almost to Wisconsin for one concert sounds bad enough, try doing it with a continuous barrage of snow - on a couple of occasions, the concert had to be delayed because some musicians hadn’t arrived yet!  But, as I’ve written on a previous post, this cold, snowy, awful weather doesn’t seem to faze the hardened residents of Minnesota.  If I thought the residents of Massachusetts were battle-hardened and oblivious to extreme winter conditions, Minnesotans trump even them.

Vacation time!

overall i feel the concerts went well!  it was nice not to have to perform a full program, and it was fun to get to see another quartet perform, for a change.  today (the 7th) and friday, the concerts were held at the spco center, which is in the ‘historic hamm’ building.  this is spco HQ - administrative offices, rehearsal space/hall, practice space etc.  this is where we’ve been going to for orchestra rehearsals.  the hall is very nice, and while not necessarily a ’small’ space, is quite intimate.

during dress…

taking this picture, i thought it was funny how it looked kind of like a miniature version of jordan hall in boston - they took out just the organ part - then they shrank it and put it in the back of this room haha.

anyways - the concert on saturday was north of the twin cities, in a town called new brighton.  it was at a church called bigelow chapel - the spco has about 8 or 9 performance venues outside of the ordway center and the spco center, and this is one of them.  from the outside, it doesn’t really look like much, but the space itself is very interesting - assymetrical, and a big crooked, but with very live acoustics, which is always a plus!

i had jess pose, for perspective.  if you look closely, the room is at a slight slant.  look at the chairs in the back row, from left to right.

anyways, so what a weekend!  to make matters even more difficult, the weather these past couple of days has been pretty awful.  it’s been snowing, and although it hasn’t really accumualted more than a couple of inches, it’s pretty much been constantly snowing…  and of course, it’s very cold.. :(  which makes driving treacharous and extremely stressful!

during the course of the weekend, i’ve experienced and gotten to know some of the chamber music audience of the twin cities, and i thought i’d take this moment to give my point of view - people are always critiquing the performers, and now it’s my turn to critique the audience:)

generally i would give them a big thumbs up.  all three of the concerts this weekend were very well attended, despite the bad weather - apparently this doesn’t  faze the hardy residents of minnesota!  of course, the majority of the audience was of the silver-haired generation, but at each concert i was pleasantly surprised to see quite a number of younger people in the audience - some high school students, young adults (some on dates?!), and young families with younger children.  this, to me, is always always very nice to see.  and besides the errant phone noise or two, the audiences were all very respectful - much less coughing than i expected:) i found everybody to be very enthusiastic and receptive, and there because of a genuine love for the live chamber music experience.

oh yes, and to any member of the audience that was at our concert on friday night, at the spco center:  i, we, would like to apologize for not notifying you of the program change.  we performed dvorak’s e flat quartet, opus 51, contrary to what was on the program: beethoven’s opus 127 quartet. (at least they’re both in e flat:))  there had been some sort of miscommunication, and it was not until the concert was over that any of us saw the program - otherwise we would have notified you of the change from the stage - our apologies, but we hope you enjoyed the piece anyways.

hope everybody had a good weekend -

18 days till christmas!

listening to:

Roby Lakatos and his Ensemble: ‘Later with Lakatos (live from Budapest)’

it was good to be back on the east coast - it was not until we landed at jfk that i realized that i missed it so much!  what i didn’t miss, however, was driving in new york, high gas prices ($2.29/per gallon, as opposed to $1.65 in minneapolis!), stinky air, and generally the high cost of almost everything!  but, new jersey (and its vicinity) was where i spent my childhood, so home is home i guess.

teaneck, nj, is a small town in bergen county, very close to manhattan.  speaking of home sweet home, i actually grew up a couple of towns over from teaneck, in a small town called cresskill!  so it was very exciting for me to be in this area again - it brought back many childhood memories.  as i drove along, i could recall many things- the taekwondo place i used to go to, the road that lead to my korean tutor, my favorite bakery…

the hotel we stayed at was another run-of-the-mill days inn - but of which i just found out holds an interesting story for me:  my mom just informed me that that particular days-inn (she could describe it in detail still!) was the first place my family had set up camp when we moved from korea to new jersey - in 1986..!!  it was also almost literally a stone’s throw away from the samsung corporate offices, where my dad used to work.  it has been almost 15 years since i moved from new jersey, but it was nice to see that a lot of things had stayed the same.

new jersey, especially the northern part, has a dense korean population - in palisades park, fort lee, teaneck, leonia, ridgefield, ridgefield park, etc., there are signs in korean everywhere - autobody shops, hairdressers, grocery stores, language institutes, and of course, many, many restaurants.  i was surprised to realize that i had missed my culture - in minnesota, there are not many korean people, and i can count the number of restaurants in the twin cities on one hand.

so of course, for lunch, we settled very quickly for korean food.  below is the restaurant.

So Kong Dong

Fort Lee
130 Main St
Fort Lee, NJ 07024

201.242.0026

it is a restaurant specializing in soon dooboo jjigeh, which is a soft tofu stew.  it was kind of hard to find because of construction on the street, but well worth the effort.  they gave us a variety of kimchee side dishes, which were excellent - perfectly ripe, enough variety, perfect temperature.  i ordered my stew with seafood and beef - hearty and delicious.  portions were full, and the stew was only $8!  i recommend this place to anyone who wants a fulfilling, delicious meal, at a fraction of the cost that you would get in, say, ny’s k-town (34th st.).

and, btw, the concert went ok as well - first performance of schubert rosamunde!

things i listened to on the plane ride back:

the real group: “nothing but the real group” - this is a swedish a cappella group that i discovered in high school - phenomenal group.

radiohead “in rainbows”

six feet under - “everything ends, vol.2″ (soundtrack)

just finished:  Atonement, by Ian McEwan

listening to:  Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic with Esa-Pekka

           Salonen

                     Erykah Badu–Mama’s Gun

and just because he’s so adorable…

Cory understands the true enjoyment of pillows.