It's been two and a half years since I left New York City, and I'm so glad to be back. I LOVE this city and I always love being back here. One of the things I miss most about NYC is the great summertime events around the city.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          One of my favorite summertime events is Shakespeare in the Park. Each summer, an annual theater festival is held in Central Park at the Delacorte Theater, where a Shakespeare play is shown to the public for free. The catch though is that you have to line up for the tickets on the morning of the show for a ridiculously long time. Tix distribution is at 1pm, but people will line up HOURS in advance. Everyone would camp out in line with blankets, books and food... much like an early morning picnic in the park, but less comfy (asphalt). I usually don't mind this wait as long as I'm waiting with other people; I see it as time to hang out. It's all part of the experience.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             This year's Shakespeare production was "Hamlet". Yesterday, I met up with Butter and Wendy Cheng bright and early just before 9am to line up (yes, a 4 hour wait!). Early, but apparently not early enough! There was already a LONG line - I counted nearly 400 people in line ahead of us! We were so far back that we were officially in the "grey zone", where our chances of getting tix were pretty iffy.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Was it worth it to wait so long when our chances were so slim? For a while, we contemplated just ditching to go for breakfast and just come back super early on another day for a better chance of getting tix. Forget about Hamlet's famous line "To be or not to be?".... "TO STAY OR NOT TO STAY?" Now that was our question! ;P                                                                                                                                                                                                       But like troopers, we decided to stay and hoped for the best. Plus the weather was beautiful so it wasn't so bad sitting out in the park. Over 4 hours later, we made it to the front of the line... but with less than 20 people ahead of us, we heard the dreaded words "We are now out of tickets"!                                                                                                             NOOOOOOOOOO!!! SO CLOSE...!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       But all hope was not lost. For the first 50 people who didn't get tickets, they gave us vouchers to get any available, unused tickets later before the show started. Luckily, we were able to score tickets that way and even got to sit together! *BIG SIGH OF RELIEF*                                                                                                                                                               Before the show, we grabbed a quick bite at the Shake Shack, a popular outdoor burgers/milkshake joint in the middle of Madison Square Park. I had the 'shroom burger (a delicious mushroom and cheese sandwich) and a CHOCOLATE SHAKE that I'd been dreaming about for the last few months since planning my trip back to NYC. Butter asked if the shake was as good as I remembered it to be. "MMMM HMMMM!!" *NOD*                                                                                                                                                                                         The play was really long (3.5 hours!) but it was good and entertaining to watch, especially since there was comedy infused with this dark drama of murder and madness. By the end of the night, as tired as we all were, it was still a lot of fun. Things luckily worked out well, and yes, it was even worth the wait.

I didnt have a chance to blog about this until now, but a little while back, I took my first trip to Singapore. My homegirl Sangita had just moved to Singapore earlier that week and it was her birthday, so two other girl friends and I jumped on the plane and flew out to spend her birthday weekend with her.

The weekend consisted mainly of eating, shopping, chatting and catching up, and eating some more! We managed to squeeze in a local movie "The Leap Years" before leaving.




We did manage to walk around the Botanic Gardens and through the Orchid Garden. Since we all had our cameras out, we decided to pick one flower and each take a photo of it in whatever angle and composition we liked, and then compared how differently our photos turned out. It was pretty interesting to see how differently we saw the same thing. We chose this plumeria (one of my favorite flowers), and this was my photograph of it.


One night, we hit up this rooftop bar called Loof, where they turned the roof of this building into a pretty cool half-covered outdoor lounge-bar with an open view. I liked their sign...


We ate lunch at this Indian restaurant in Little India, where the food was quite delicious. Everything was scooped onto these grass table mats on our table, and we basically ate off the table (no bowls, just straight off the grass table mats). The way to eat was with your hands, but only your RIGHT hand. Apparently the tradition for the people back home was to eat with the right hand and ahem, "wipe your butt" with the left hand. I opted to eat with fork and spoon, thank you.


Another day, we had brunch at Jones the Grocer in the Dempsey Hill area. As the name suggests, it's actually an upscale gourmet grocery store (think Dean & DeLuca in NYC) with dining tables and dining counters right in the center of the store. An interesting concept... you can shop for groceries while you wait for your meal to be served.



Of course we had to eat a more "authentic" Singaporean meal at least once... so for our last dinner of the weekend, we went and ordered the Singaporean chili crab. Yum!


On our last night together, we went to the waterfront bar area called Clarke Quay for some drinks. It had a nice night view... it was a good way to end the chill, relaxing weekend away with the girls.





Tomorrow I'll be heading back to the States for a long vacation to visit family and friends in SF, LA, and NY. It'll be my first time back in over a year so I'm looking forward to seeing my parents and family, as well as some old friends from high school and college! Can't wait!

I grew up listening to Hip Hop/Rap/R&B since forever, so even though I now listen to more diverse types of music, it's still my all-time favorite... especially at parties.

Feeling nostalgic, I compiled a list of my 10 favorite classic, old-skool Rap/Hip Hop/R&B songs from the 1990's or earlier, in chronological order...

Anyone recognize these?

1) "Push It" (remix)- Salt N' Pepa [1986]
An old classic, it's one of my all-time faves! If you watch the video, you'll see them busting out the old '80's "Roger Rabbit" dance move around 2:15 minutes into the video!! (I remember practicing it with my friends, haha) As I was only a young and innocent school girl at the time, I had no idea that this song was all about s-e-x until years later! haha
Video: http://www.youtube.com/v/BCV5yGKWjv4&hl=en

2) "Around the Way Girl" - LL Cool J [1990]
Old skool LL Cool J! I remember this from oh so long time ago...
"Standing at the bus stop sucking on a lollipop..."
Video: http://www.youtube.com/v/v9CTSRg4NDk&hl=en

3) "T.R.O.Y. (They Reminisce Over You)" - Pete Rock & CL Smooth [1992]
This is one of my favorite rap songs from my high school days. I love the underlying melody. I couldn't afford to buy much music back then, but I remember buying the cassette single for this song... (remember those days of cassette players and boomboxes? ha!)
Video: http://www.youtube.com/v/SuUZ1NnmRCc&hl=e

4) "Nuthin' But A G Thang" - Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg [1992]
"One, two, three and to the four..."
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEMmbtcxbpc

5) "You Remind Me" - Mary J. Blige [1992]
A classic Mary J. song.... This song "reminds" me of my old school days...
Video: http://www.youtube.com/v/meTs9NO12uA&hl=en

6) "Today Was A Good Day" - Ice Cube [1993]
"Today I didn't even have to use my A.K.
I gotta say it was a good day."
Video: http://www.youtube.com/v/c4RY-eJgHHs&hl=en

7) "Back and Forth" - Aaliyah [1994]
Despite her early death in 2001, Aaliyah will always be one of my favorite female R&B singers. This song is one of her first singles (back in her R.Kelly days), and is still one of my favorites of hers. Rest in peace...
Video: http://www.youtube.com/v/b2loc2Z37VE&hl=en

8) "I Got Five On It" (remix) - Luniz (feat. Digital Underground, Dru Down, Richie Rich & E-40) [1995]
Another one of my all-time favorites. Both rappers of Luniz hail from my ghetto hometown and they rap about Oakland throughout the song. Oh yeah, I went to elementary school with the younger brother of one of the rappers, we were in the same 4th(?) grade class. I love this remix. And check out the video at around 1:35 mins, they're busting out the "Kid n'Play" dance move. =)
Video: http://www.youtube.com/v/CiZ3XtGtmQs&hl=en

9) "California Love" - Tupac (feat. Dr. Dre) [1995]
Tupac's also from Oaktown. West-SIDE! A great party anthem!
Video: http://www.youtube.com/v/FWOsbGP5Ox4&hl=en

10) "Make It Hot" - Nicole (feat. Missy Elliott) [1998]
This is the first and only song that I randomly heard from this girl Nicole, but I love it. This song is backed by Missy Elliott and Timbaland, and has shout outs to Aaliyah and Ginuwine, who all make appearances in the video.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/v/yDZXlxASYYA&hl=en

Local girl band, So What (which my pretty and talented friend Jan is the lead singer of), released their debut album "Happiness" last fall.  I assisted with the album photo shoot last year in Sheung Wan and had the opportunity to take a handful of closeup shots of the girls during the shoot. The following two of my photos of Jan were used in the album insert booklet. (More photos from the shoot can be found in my album here.)




The rest of the album booklet photos, including the cd cover photos (see below), were shot by Edmon Leong, who is an amazing photographer. Although he's mainly a fashion photographer, I've found all of his photography work to be so incredible and inspiring... and he's a good friend and has been a mentor to me in the recent years. He just joined AnD as an official artist so go check out his page and photos and say hi! :)

As some folks have already started blogging about it, the AnD anniversary party on Sunday was awesome!! The live performances by 24 Herbs, MC Gold Mountain, INK, and MC G were all off da hook, and the DJ's were spinning up a storm. (Shout outs to Tung Tung (DJ Miss Yellow) and Roger (DJ Reflex)... Glad I got to hear you guys spin! Great job!) Berton and I were helping AnD take photos so we were both running around all evening, but even then I still had a blast . Saw many familiar faces, and had the chance to chat with old and new friends throughout the evening in between clicks, and then finally got to party on the the dance floor after I put my camera down around 3am. I had so much fun I didn't wanna leave... haha

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Alive not Dead!!!!! And congrats on throwing a kick-@ss party!

There are a lot more photos in my photo album, but here are some teasers...

24 Herbs


Terence, Daniel, Andrew, Conroy posing for photos and giving press interviews






Watch out for Daniel's innocuous looking "squirt" camera... I fell victim to it... =P


Patrick and the Alive guys


The guys and girls of AnD



MissyK and MC G


Group photo, including Kate and Roger (of E.V.E.N.T.) Annie (of Anniewho), and Brian


Ophelia and the boys of Audiotraffic


These guys are naturals in front of the camera.. Darren and Pat and friends.


Kate and Julie


Me with Emily, who just moved back to the States the day after the party... boohoo..


Roger (DJ Re flex) spinning


24 Herbs



Tung Tung (aka DJ Miss Yellow) on the turntables


INK doing some dope beatboxing


MC Gold Mountain just before tearin' up the mic


MC G and MC Gold Mountain freestyling