Photo Shoot

Suba and I went to the West Bottom to shoot the album cover for a local band called Sometimes Three. Here's a sneak peek of one of the many great shots we got this afternoon. We used three cameras to shoot, and I'm still waiting on the other two groups of images. For a sample of their songs, go to sometimesthree.com. The CD is scheduled to release on May 30th, the night of their performance at the Grand Emporium.

Spring is Here

Here's a picture taken on the street where I live. Right now is one of the most beautiful seasons of the year, when the trees are blooming pretty pink and white... and the grass is finally green again. My mom would have gone crazy if she sees this. However, she and my dad will be visiting in Fall, which is another favorite season of mine. So, here's a Spring picture for you, mom.

San Francisco Photo Montage

Thanks to Eric, we do have some very wonderful pictures from our trip. Actually, there were one or two pictures in the video that came from my disposable camera. (i.e. the Alcatraz Lighthouse.) I quickly put together a little montage of some highlights of the trip in one evening. iMovie is just simply fabulous to play with! Anyway, I'll be making a few more videos so I get to include some other pictures of our friends we met there. Enjoy the video!

San Francisco Trip

I just came back from a one week vacation in San Francisco with Eric. The trip was fabulous and we did the very typical tourist stuff except I didn't have my camera with me! This is a first for me, going on a vacation without my digital camera. I found out about the absence of my camera in my bag on our way to the airport. That morning I had taken it out to clear up my memory card and must had forgotten to put it back. I was rather disappointed because I never leave home without my camera, but Eric has his with him so it was not the end of the world that I don't have mine with me. In fact, I convinced myself it would be a change for me because now I can truly experience my vacation and not trying to capture my memories through the view finder and miss out on the real deal at that moment "live!" I think it was the second day and I could not resist myself because I was itching to recording my experience with a camera, so I got myself a very low-tech disposable camera from Walgreens for $6.99. Of course, I had only 27 exposures and no zoom. I totally forgot how one has to conserve film because there's a limit to how many pictures one can take, and that one can't view the picture immediately after each click. It was certainly a refreshing experience because I vaguely remember the feeling of anticipation of each exposure and the excitement "risk taking" because of the uncertainty of the outcome. Later, I realized that I should not be complaining because at least I was using a 35mm film! Even though the camera is just a cheap plastic camera obscura with a flash, the medium itself was arguably more superior that digital. The first thing I walked into the door today was to look for my digital camera, to see where I so carelessly left behind. I looked around but it was nowhere to be found. I got panic and when back to my bag and ransacked the whole thing and sure enough, all these while, my digital camera was in my bag, which went with me to San Francisco and back, hidden between the torn lining, à la Carrie Bradshaw's signature necklace she thought she lost at the Dior store in Paris. Well, looks like I don't need my digital camera after all for me to remember this trip!

Bathroom Makeover

This long overdue project is finally completed! There were many plans and many changes, numerous quotes both high and low. But in the end, I chose to make just a small face-lift since I'm not sure how long I'll be living in this house. After a few coats of fresh paint, a brand new deluxe one-piece low profile Kohler toilet and Isaac Mizrahi's bathroom wall cabinets and armoire, the transformation is done. It may not be my dream bathroom, but I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Many thanks to John and Bruce for helping installing the wall cabinet. It was deceptively difficult to hang a relatively small piece of cabinet on the wall with just two screws. It took three big guys to complete the job!

Money Tree

I threw a Chinese New Year party last night. All my guests seemed to have a nice time...eat, drink, man, woman... except my best friend, Suba, missed the party because she's sick and was not well enough to show up.

I had ordered some flowers for the party a few days ago and they didn't turn out to be something I wanted when they arrived at the florist, so I just changed my plan and decided to go with a branch that looks like a bald bonzai tree. I stuck it into a pot filled with soil and covered it with some pebbles. It turn out to be pretty cool under my two paper lanterns. Half way into the party, Will suddenly remembered this tradition he learnt while he was in Hong Kong last year, and said, "I need a dollar note for the money tree." He got a buck and tied it into a bow on the branch. Apparently it's for prosperity.

Even though I'm Chinese and celebrate Chinese New Year all my life, my family never really follow closely to the tradition that has anything to do with prosperity or wealth because we're Catholics. To us, New Year celebration is thanksgiving and family reunion. Of course, after Will tied the first dollar bill on the tree, all my guests turned to me and asked me to explain about the tradition. I was puzzled but hey, it's money, so I guess I LIKE this tradition. Yes, everyone should tie money on the money tree for prosperity. In fact, next year I'll have an outdoor party. I have a bigger tree outside!

Everyone started pulling out money and made all kinds of origami to decorate the tree. It was hilarious! I haven't counted the total on the tree yet because I want to keep them up there for the whole fifteen days of the celebration. However, I did spot a few $5 notes and one $20 bill! Wow! Thank you, guys! It was quite a properous night for me. Thanks, Will. I'm definitely doing this again next year.

Little Shop of Horrors Poster

Here's another poster than I recently completed. It is another popular musical that audience are expecting to see the iconic image, in this case, a giant man-eating plant. David, the director, is staging the musical ala Film Noir style and that gives me a very distinct art direction for the poster. I requested David to provide me with a line or two of some kind of a "B-Movie-esque" poster tag lines to go with the campy retro movie posters, and he actually opened it up to the students to come up with something. They end up provided me with a long list of creative tag lines to pick from. I was just exciting that the kids get to participate in the creative process as well. In the illustration, I placed the plant behind a store window, which allowed me to position the title as the store sign on the glass window. Production Note: The illustration was done with a marker on paper and then scanned and traced in Illustrator. Colors were filled in later and a digital photo of a textured surface was overlaid onto the whole image to add a touch of organic and painterly effect.

Angels in America Poster

Here's the poster of Angels in America for the Jewish Community Center. Since HBO has popularized the play and the imagery of their promotional materials seem so familiar to the public, the challenge for me was to come up with something original; not to repeat something HBO had done. After meeting with Mark, the director, I've decided to take the conceptual route for the visual, as opposed to the approach of HBO which is pretty much a glorified still shot of a scene from the mini series. The final outcome was an image of a glint of hope amidst the destruction and darkness of Part One. Production Note: It was a bright sunny day on Sunday and I took a bunch of pictures at the construction site of my new office since they had just knocked down a brick wall a few days ago. The image on the poster is a composite of at least 6 still images. Of course the feather was also a separate image.

A Chorus Line Poster

Here'e the poster I designed and illustrated for A Chorus Line presented by the Jewish Community Center that's coming up in a few weeks. The posters are printed and delivered today and I can't wait to see them. Next in line is Angels in America.

Continuing Conversations: A Collaborative Painting Effort between Subashini Nadarajah and Michael Ong

Artist Statement
It takes chemistry, understanding, courage, selflessness, total faith and respect for two artists to share a canvas and come up with one final work of art. Obviously, that's the kind of relationship we have. Being best friends for 16 years, our careers and lives thrive on each other's inspirations, ideas, criticisms and encouragements.
The works in this show evoke memories of our friendship over the years and the many spontaneous conversations that we've shared...both happy and sad. This collection of twelve paintings is, in essence, a visual dialogue between the two of us.
In the making of these paintings, we would start a canvas, then send it on for the other to continue, without discussing what should be done next. We were often surprised by how far we pushed each other's envelopes. In the end, we both came to the realization that two in-sync creative minds are better than one. This is our first collaborative painting show, but it definitely won't be our last. After all, we enjoy our continued conversations.

Here's the complete collection of the 12 paintings of the show.

Christmas Dinner at Will's

This year's Christmas Dinner was at Will's again. Naeem, David, Suba, Eric and I were invited and each of us brought a side dish, and Will roasted a delicious chicken. He was so proud of his accomplishment we had to take a picture to show his mom. As usual, his apartment was beautifully decorated, and the table settings were simply divine. After dinner, we opened gifts and watch Margaret Cho's new show: Assassin. An evening of food, friends, gifts, and laughter in a gorgeous environment...we couldn't have asked for anything better. But wait! There's more. Producers opened that day and we all went to see it after dinner. Cho and the Producers back to back in a night...not a good idea. I had a sore throat the next morning for laughing hysterically all night long.

Feature Painting SOLD!

Suba and my Art Show opens this evening at the Crossroads at 6pm. We are both so excited because one of our paintings that was picked by the gallery owner to be hung on the feature wall is already sold. The title of the painting is called "Matinee". I hope this is a good sign for a sell out show!

Rent: Broadway vs Hollywood

Went to see an advance screening of Rent last night with Will. The theater was filled with fans and for a moment, I was worried that it would turn out to be a sing-along movie night. Apart from a big applause at the first big reveal of Angel in full drag, most people were respectful enough to wait until the closing credit for their own Karaoke moment. I'm not going to write a big review of the film because I'm sure there are way too many our there. However, I can't help but wonder if the effectiveness of the movie is totally based how well the film is made or because most of us are already so familiar with it and that our tear ducts automatically cued to work on certain scenes? The film stays very true to the Broadway version. Even the costumes are recognizably similar if not identical. Seasons of Love got moved up as the opening credit, and the hot, hot, hot track, Contact, was left out. I wonder if they're saving it for the "uncut" version on the DVD version? Anyhow, even though I totally expected that this is a musical, it still took me a few minutes to adjust myself to the "musical" mode. Tango: Muarine was my favorite in the movie. It was what I hoped each song is going to be for the film but the rest are pretty much the Broadway performance on film, with close-ups. Nevertheless, I still shed a tear and sing-a-long at the closing credit.

Revolution Tee

If you haven't checked out our recently launched, PodcastsUnite.com website , here's a peek of our launch t-shirt, entitled "The Revolution Tee". There are more exciting and fun items on the way! Shop, shop and shop!

Podcasters Unite!

Podcasters Unite!, originally uploaded by michaelongline.

PodcastersUnite.com is officially launched today. My brother and I started a new company that sells podcast related merchandise online. Most of the stuff sold out there are rather geeky. We felt the need to elevate the quality of the design both the graphic and the apparel. We have already shipped out a batch of promo t-shirts to a network of podcasters last weekend. We hope that they will get a first hand experience of the superior quality of our product and start passing the word around. So far, we only started with one design, and there are a few already been designed and are in production now. Please check out the site and order up a few t-shirts for yourself and as holiday gifts!

Art Show in December

Art Show in December, originally uploaded by michaelongline.

Here's the unofficial invitation we sent out to some friends yesterday. The show is called "Continuing Conversations". Suba and I have been doing joint shows since we were in college. This time it will be in a form of collaborative painting. Either of us start a painting and the other person end it, or we may go back and forth, just like a conversation. Just like best friends, it takes a lot of trusts to hand over something so personal and let the other person continue working on it, without any direction. It is a very exciting process and I hope people will feel the same excitement when the show opens in December 2, 2005.

Carriage Ride

Carriage Ride, It's me riding a horse carriage back to my house from a party. Behind me is Cinderella's humble abode. Originally uploaded by michaelongline.

Typically, riding on a horse carriage, especially in this part of the country is no big deal. However, riding it back to my house from a party is rather rare. Come to think of it, isn't it kind of like Cinderella? I live in a historic neighborhood and many people are very proud of their homes. A neighbor of mind threw a 100th Birthday party for his house. The event was rather elaborate. He even hired actors to play the previous owners, in period costumes! Of course, a big mansion with a carriage house is incomplete without a real horse carriage. Thanks to Eric for tipping the Cowboy and "Mike" 5 bucks. Pretty generous for a one-block ride.

My New iPuppy

My New iPuppy, originally uploaded by michaelongline.

I finally got myself a puppy! I've been wanting to have a dog for many years but since I live by myself and I'm at the office for at least 10 hours a day, it seems like it too cruel to leave the dog alone for such a long period of time. (That is if it can hold for that long not to potty in the house.) A coworker of my is very allergic to animal, so bringing my dog to work is out of the question, even though my boss doesn't mind us bring our dogs to work.
Then I found the perfect dog. All I need to feed him is music! It reacts to music and dances to the beat. Best of all, it doesn't pee nor poop. Isn't it fabulous! Apparently, it has moods and needs attention sometimes. And it barks occasionally. How cute. Of course, it is totally stylish because it matches my iPod and my iMac G5.

Lights On!

The preview of the illuminated Bloch Building, taken from the East side of the museum, photographed by michaelongline.

Lights on over the new reflecting pool, photographed by michaelongline.

I drove by the Nelson-Atkins Museum this evening and still under-construction addition of the museum was illuminated from within. The new wing built by architect Steven Holl is scheduled to open in 2007, but it has stirred up quite a controversy in the city because most people think it doesn't appear to be the same as what's been promised. I think the light was turned on to allow people to experience the luminosity of the structure at night. What's shown here is one of the five glass skin structures situated at the north end of the campus. Being a great fan of the museum, I am very excited about the project from the beginning and is looking forward to the completion of the addition so I can totally experience the architecture inside and around it. Therefore I shall refrain myself from commenting on the architecture until it's open to the public. As for now, I'll just enjoy the little preview of surprise light show by the museum.

Deep Thoughts on My Birthday

I often find it interesting that human being are so drawn to the concept of time, which is related to the change of the position of the moon and stars, and the seasons and the tides. Somehow, we feel like we have the need to count the repetitious occurrences that surround, including our our age. Has it anything to do with the fact that we use it as a marking to valid ourselves to behave certain way according to social norms, or perhaps to acknowledge the inevitable aging process in our lives and the survival of another 365 days? I don't intend to demean the essence of birthdays, but somehow, it is just another many markings we carve on a pole that may or may not mean anything certain people. I like to see birthday as a reminder, just like a photo reminds you of a certain love ones. Birthdays remind me of looking back and evaluate the past 12 months, and then making goals for the coming year, very much like most people do on New Year's Day. As the marks on the pole is getting higher each year, it certainly feels like I'm making them much quicker then before. I used to remember that when I was a little child, I had to wait forever for Christmas to come around. Now, I often catch myself asking, "that was 3 years ago?!" So, why is time flying by so fast? Most people say when you're having a good time, time flies. That doesn't mean that I had a terrible childhood. I just think now I have a lot more going on in my life than ever. I have more responsibilities, obligations and stress. I also have more friends and more people that I really care for that I need to spend time with. These makes the slices of a pie much smaller; which means each bite is even more precious to me than before. I guess if I were to look back and evaluate my pass, I realized how blessed I am for being able to share my slice of my pie with my friends, my family and my lover. And yet I still have enough leftover for myself. I cherished every moment when I'm with them, and I strived to make each moment a pleasant experience for everyone. My birthday wish is to have many more of these wonderful moments ahead of me so I could share it with my love ones. It is hard to live halfway across the globe from my family and friends. I only get so many days in every other year to see them. However, just like anything else, the experience is more precious when it is so rare that we get to see each other anymore. Everything else in life is material. Relationships are the true essence of happiness in life.