Above is a map of the Seoul Subway system, including line #9 that just started operating this year(2009). The interactive versions in English as well as Korean can be viewed here: http://www.seoulmetro.co.kr/station/eng/linemap.action

Once in a while, I enjoy the thrill of organizing a mid-sized gathering of 20 people or more.
This time, the occasion was just right, as I was leaving a group of people that I care a lot about.
I set the guest count to 30, and prepared a dinner for this warm September evening.
Since cooking for 30 all alone was going to be overwhelming, I outsourced two dishes at the Korean super market.
The entire menu consisted of these items:
- Marinated Korean Beef Shortribs and Bulgogi (10 lbs)
- Sea food pan-fried in batter (ordered)
- Jab-chae (ordered)
- Cubes of fresh tofu topped with Katsuobushi(dried fish flakes) and soy sauce
- Bibimbap assembly line: sauteed carrots, cucumber, squash, white radish, shitake mushrooms, and egg.
- 13 cups of steamed rice
- Kirin Ichiban Beer
- Fresh watermelon juice

The watermelon juice starts out this way:
Pick the right watermelons – I lightly knock on the shell with my knuckle and evaluate the sound. If it sounds hollow, then the watermelon is ripe. I also sniff it from the outside and pick the ones that smell good.

cut the flesh into wedges, scrape out the seeds, and mash the fruit with a fork and a potato masher. I Did not use the blender, since I thought mashing by hand would create a better texture. After the watermelon starts looking like juice, I taste it and add some honey if it needs more sweetening.

Then into the jar goes the juice.

The vegetables is a whole other story.

There are eggs, white radishes, carrots, shitake mushrooms, cucumbers, and squash. All of these are matchstick-cut and cooked. The eggs are beaten, cooked like a crepe, and cut into slivers after it cools.

After hours of slicing and dicing and cooking, I was beaten up and tired. But when people started eating, it felt like I had just started a whole new day. The energy from people charged me up again.

The menu idea was inspired from last year’s JLS lunch that I and the Korean parents hosted for the faculty: http://emjaykim.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/gathering1-korean-parent-lunch/ Thank goodness I documented some of it.

One of a series of strange abstract spaces. From 2007. This particular image no longer exists because I painted over it. 9″X12″ panel with acrylic.

I learned this handy skill from a pdf on marthastewart.com. Now that I know how to fold, I wish I only wore t-shirts just so I could fold them and put them into drawers.

sketch from the ferry buildling looking southwest- statue of liberty on the right, one of Olafur Eliasson’s waterfalls on the left.

A good thing to do in New York city is to take the Statten Island ferry (for free) and take a round trip from the southern tip of Manhattan. Currently, artist Olafur Eliasson’s four waterfalls are on display as a public installation.

On this trip to New York, I left my weighty manual camera at home so I could draw more. I definitely end up with fewer images, but soak in more details through observing.

mother reading on the couch. This is the only time I am able to observe her in stillness for long enough.

a view of the Hudson river from the train station in Beacon. We went to visit the Dia museum, which was amazing in terms of its airy gallery spaces and architecture as well as the art works, but more on that later.  The landscape as seen from the Metro North railway was of the Hudson river and some swamps and a horizontal mountain wall.  It is surprising how rural the land becomes as you ride out north from Manhattan.

wut’cha lookin at?, oil on 16″X20″ canvas

Finally, I followed the advice of Mr. Giovanni Civardi (whose drawing book I picked up at Borders) and tried another medium. The oil colors unintentionally look dismal. A small feat, although this may account for the muddying of paints, is that I painted the whole thing without a drop of turpentine.

I almost want to apologize for putting up not the best paintings for anybody to see. The shading is blotchy. But, hey, this is painting number one. I hope to see some progress as the posts multiply.

morning