Where Pianos Roam

I Covet: "All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu"

One of my favorite pianists and performers, Rufus Wainwright, just released a new album.  It's called All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu.  My dear friend Chris out in North Carolina alerted me of it's existence and summoned me to action to get it. 

It's actually a very stripped down album of just vocals and piano.  I think this format works for Rufus because he has a very rich and versatile voice.  It is an instrument unto itself.  I actually tried to buy it the other day, but the store I went to didn't have a copy!!!  UUUGGGHHHH!!!!!!!

Here is an awesome documentary about this new album:

Watching this clip makes me more frustrated that I don't have it yet. 

Hopefully, this weekend it shall fall gracefully into my hands.  

Gordon's Video Blog: Episode 2

I wanted to show off my Mom's garden.  She works on it every day, and it is her burgeoning masterpiece.

By the way, I lost some footage during prep/post production.  Ooops.  No worries.  I will be visiting this garden again and again as it blooms more fully through the year. 

Enjoy!

Is there a garden in your neighborhood?  If there is, I hope you know that it is the result of someone's nurturing love and care. 

Take a minute to enjoy it and any garden anywhere!!!

Early On a Sunday Morning

Earlier this morning, I went out for a ride on my new bike.  It is such a beautiful sunny day today.  Sigh.  A cool, soft wind brushed by me as I glided down a steep hill.  I was thinking that this must be what it's like ride a motorcycle, except that you get more excercise, have a lot less noise to deal with, and are required to wear very little, if any, leather.

When I got home, I steamed some Filipino food that my Mom gave me (pictured above), and it was delicious.  This food is called Siopao, and it is a pork meal packed inside soft, white dough.  I grew up eating this stuff and savor every bite that I happen to get once in a while.  I've heard that they take a lot of work to make, but they are oh so tasty.

Speaking of food, I was in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, and I ate the most amazing dish.  I've blogged about this before, and I'll do it again.  It's a dish called Zucca from a restaurant called Figo Pasta.  Honestly, it's one of the most delicious meals I have EVER had.  Made out of butternut squash stuffed in ravioli, it has a rich flavor that doesn't hit you all at once but comes in undulating waves.  If I wasn't eating this in the middle of a restaurant, I would have been lying on the floor in a daze of mouthwatering ecstasy.  Ok, maybe not, but it really IS that good.

ZUCCA!!!!!

Now, as much as I love eating food, I've been thinking a lot lately about eating healthier.  I recently started taking a daily multi-vitamin supplement as well as an Omega 3 fish oil supplement.

All of this talk about Earth Day lately has gotten me thinking about how we treat our own bodies.  We stuff it with fast food, sugar-filled sodas, and lots of caffeine.  There are night owls with day jobs that don't give their bodies enough time to rest.  There are people like me who are workaholics who don't often take the time to decompress.  Our bodies, much like the Earth, are all we have.  They are a living, breathing testament to who we are, and they facilitate our well-being and happiness.  It's about time we started being more nurturing to ourselves and the natural world around us. 

I'm going to start looking into affordable unprocessed foods.  Surely, there are better alternatives out there that aren't filled with preservatives, hormones, and who knows what else.  More on this soon.

The purchase of my bike was a commitment I made to myself not only to get regular, fun exercise, but to also just enjoy the outdoors again.  It has been the perfect, non-polluting solution that met both of these needs.  I love my bike.

Good food and joyriding.  It doesn't take much to make this Asian happy!

Happy Earth Day!!!!

I hope we all can take the time to appreciate the natural gifts and beauty our home planet offers.  This is all we've got, and I hope we as a civilization can start to take the utmost care of it.

From now on, I will be dedicating one post every week here on WPR towards an Earth-conscious topic.  We are gonna stay green here on this blog, and I will continue to do my part every day to be a better caretaker of our home.

Happy Earth Day Everyone!!!

Be aware and be kind.

I Covet: Recycled Boombox

Do you own an ipod, zune, or mp3 player of some sort?  Do you need a way to play your music out loud instead of on your earphones?  Well, here's a solution:  a recycled boombox!!!!!!

Made out of used cardboard candy boxes, it is a docking station that is compatible with most portable music players.  You may as well go as green as possible when you dance to your hot polka music or accordian rock.

It's also available in red:

Here's the best part.  It cost's a marginal $18.00 at Urban Outfitter's online store.  To check it out, just click HERE.

In general, one great way to help conserve resources and reduce waste is to re-purpose an old item instead of throwing it away.  Maybe you have an old rug that can be transformed into an art piece or fabric mural.  How about painting a bunch of cardboard boxes and hanging them up from your ceiling for decoration?  Cut up that ghastly old prom dress sitting in your closet and sew some throw pillows.  The possibilities are as endless as your own imagination!!!

See what you can do!!

By the way, I happened to come across another awesome, re-purposed item.  Check this out: 

It is called the 111 Navy Chair, and it is made out of 111 recycled plastic coke bottles.  How AWESOME is that?  It is available exclusively at Design Within Reach.  Go HERE to get the details.

Go ahead.  Rummage through your house.  I'll bet you can find something to re-use in a supremely cool way. 

Happy Earth Day!!!

Gordon Roque's Video Blog, Episode 1

Here is the inaugural episode of my Video Blog that will now take the place of my previous "Video of the Week" series. 

This first episode features myself, Oreo and Buttercup, and a big, ice cream-eating Nacho!

Enjoy .  .  .

Stay tuned for the next episode!

BTW, Happy Earth Day everyone!!!!

Early On a Sunday Morning

As Earth Day is now upon us on April 22, all of this week's posts will be about taking better care of our earth, being more energy efficient, and saving water.

Just about every week, my family and I set aside all of our used plastic containers, unwanted paper and mail, plastic grocery bags, aluminum cans, and cardboard boxes.  I gather up all of this stuff on the weekends.  The paper, plastic containers, aluminum, and cardboard go to the recycling drop-off site that is five minutes from my house.  There are these huge metal green bins that you can place all of these materials in.  Every week, their contents get sent off to be recycled. 

There are 13 recycling drop-off sites in the Nashville-Metro-Davidson County area where I live.  To view a full listing of these sites, complete with maps/directions, addresses, and lists of what they accept, just go HERE.

The plastic grocery bags, on the other hand, are taken to the Kroger Supermarket that is also near my house.  They, along with the Wal-Mart and Target nearby, have receptacles where you can put in all of your plastic bags and have them recycled.  This is a great solution to having so many plastic bags in your house after countless trips to buy groceries.  Take the bags back to the source.  You can easily drop them off as you head in for more shopping.  (Better yet, use the reusable bags that most major stores now sell inexpensively.  They're pretty snazzy.)

These are some of the many little things we can do every day and every week to help preserve our planet for our children, nieces, and nephews to take over after us. 

Earth Day might just be my favorite day of the year!

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Officially, I became a bonafide, real uncle when he was born.  My Mom became a Grandmother, and my older sis become a Mom.  So much can change.  The world can shift is seismic ways when a child is born.  (Take that Jesus kid, for example.)

Surely enough, our lives haven't been the same since he walked in.  He's a very sweet kid.  Anyone who knows him can't help but like him.  (Girls his age, and some older ones for that matter, ADORE him.)

He's a talented athlete who happens to be good at math and drawing.  (He is half Asian, after all.)

Happy Birthday to my dear, sweet Tyler!

With love,

Uncle

Video of the Week: Her Morning Elegance

After this week, the format for my Video of the Week will be changing.  I am venturing into the murking but exhilarating world of video podcasting.  My first video podcast debuts next Monday.  (Yikes!)

In the meantime, this week's featured video is nothing less than BREATHTAKING.  First of all, I love Oren Lavie's voice, and his use of a Wurlitzer keyboard is delightful and effective.

Lastly, if you ever needed an example of how stop-motion filming can be used to great effect, this video is it.

I'm gonna shut up now.  I totally, completely, LOVE this.

Ladies and Gents, Oren Lavie's Her Morning Elegance .  .  .

It's a sunny Tuesday morning at Cafe Coco here in Nashville as I type this.  I hope it's sunny where you are.

Early On a Sunday Morning

Lately, I've developed a habit of secretive Asian book hunting.  This basically involves walking into a book store with my stylish but largely non-descript attire.  In my casual, serpentine sort of way, I would quietly meander by all of the discount-book racks and with my slanted Asian eyes framed within my ultra-adorable glasses, ravenously scour the displays and shelves for cool stuff to read at very reasonable prices (less than $5, but no more than $10).  I've found quite a few lovelies this way.

First off, there this: 

For a whopping $2.99 from Barnes and Noble, I purchased a book full of easy-to-understand instruction on various knitting projects for beginners and advanced knitters alike.  Yay!  I followed a pattern for a book mark and made this:

So far, I've actually made three bookmarks.  Each took about twenty minutes to completely finish.  I'm gonna need them for all of the books I have!

Speaking of knitting, I also recently purchased this:

Since I am obviously a guy who knits, this book was more than fitting for the leisurely, oh-so-manly things I do in my spare time.  I'm itching to do some of the projects in this book.  It's pretty darn cool.

For another whopping $5.00, I found this book that is full of useful, eco-friendly practices for daily living as well as some incredibly stunning photography .  .  .

This makes for an informative reference book for a future project that I hope to launch in a few months.  It's a wonderful find for a great price.  It's gonna help me do my part to save the world.

Up next, I've also recently taken an interest in digital photography both for the sake of this blog, web design work, and my music projects.  This book, also found on a discount rack, has proven to be incredibly useful.

This week, I'm plowing through that last book of the 100 Cupboards series by ND Wilson that I borrowed from the library near my house.  It's called The Chestnut King.

When a wall full of cupboard doors in the middle of Kansas is actually a grouping of portals to a magical, far-off place, one can't help to be curious about where these doors lead.  It's been a lively and engrossing read thus far.  I'm sad to reach the end of the series, but I'm glad for the adventure. 

So, that's a little update on what I've been up to.  If you see an Asian secretively shopping for bargain books in a bookstore near you, that guy is probably not me. 

;-)