Category Archives: photos
Rehearsal @ Gibson Studios
U know I hit that. It sat hulking in the corner, like a big shiny lollipop. That big, red shiny Baldwin baby grand. Mommy, I want one!!! Now!!!!!!
Sitting in the Gibson rehearsal studio, in the former Hit Factory building of legend, I thought, “It’ll look fabulous in the living room of my beach house where everything else, all furnishings and such, shall be ultra-blankly-white. It’ll be the icing on the cake.” Yep, I’m always thinking and taking notes on taste, among other things of interest.
Rehearsal was fun with Dusty, Dan, Michael and Jenelle, as we did a run through of our songs for Thursday’s Lovers’ Concert. I’m excited to play these covers with such a lovely, talented bunch! It’ll be an all-out luscious evening of music, kisses and lollipops.
Le Party
I woke up at 8am today and been going ever since. That’s strange because A LOT of tequila and macoli (traditional unfiltered soju) was imbibed last night. Most of it by me. Yeah, in addition to being weird like that, I do have gymming to thank for every one of my thank-the-lord, hangover-less mornings
Aside 1: (seriously, ever since I started gymming it, out went the hangovers, no matter how many bottles I imbibe. Unless there’s mixing or shitty wine. That’s not a good idea as the resulting hangover can be surrrrious. Then again, tequila is the only hard liquor I’ll ever mess with. Even before gymming, I couldn’t sell my soul to a tequila hangover. Is it because it’s the only amphetamine of all alcohols? The rest are depressants. I thank the gods of agave, partake on occasion and don’t drink on an empty stomach.)
My girl Samantha and I decided to celebrate our births at the W Hotel and in Seoultown! It all made for a wonderful evening. The booze was boozy, as were the lovely boys and girls aplenty. I could still hear the Korean BBQ sizzling on the grill. Everyone had a ball as far as I can tell.
Really, I’m not exactly party-girl, but yesterday I was. I got to exchange a few words with just about everybody, and not enough words with just about everybody. That’s usually the rule for this sort of thing. You set the mood and atmosphere and let the night take off into the ether. There was also the bit of multitasking involved. A scene for my upcoming music video was filmed in the middle of the party. If you were there, you just might be in the next Tora Brava music video.
Here be some photos, matey. Arrrr…
Polar Halloween 09
I don’t know how many parties we hit over the course of the weekend, but there were a few. Me and li’l Pola on my shoulder, being the last polar bears on earth gave me the perfect excuse to carry an M16 around with me. After all, you’re allowed to protect the ones you love. Just don’t instigate, mkay?
My friends DJ Jay Vee and Victor Sheely were in fine form playing their music on the rooftops of NYC. It was a roof-hopping Halloween weekend, with the weather in rare cooperation.
Hitched in the hills
Hitched? Me? Nah. It’s not my time yet. And not that I don’t like talking about myself, but come on. I had been holding my blogger tongue for too long.
Life got busy and hectic in a way that I wasn’t sure I’d blog about. Then I realized how silly I was being… my brother got married! So who wouldn’t want to hear about a bunch of Koreans descending on a little-known Victorian town in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, a town only second behind Las Vegas in sheer number of marriage ceremonies performed per year? (that’s 6,000 per year, baby)
Yeah, there’s a story or two there. And I miss everybody SO much, absolutely homesick, but that’s how it is when you’re family is large and scattered all around the world. Such meeting times are precious and all-too-rare and will always remain close to my heart.
And OMG, we love our grammas!! Though one was not well enough to make the trans-Pacific flight, my other gramma was determined. She flew Korea to New Jersey to NW Arkansas for my brother’s wedding without breaking a sweat. Now that’s what I call perseverance — and the magic of flying Business Class. Uh-huh, only the best for our grammas, thank you very much.
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Who knew? We were within a few miles of Turpentine Creek, one of the world’s largest big cat reserves.
Charming reception. He was just trying to eat my sunglasses a moment ago.
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The wonderful people of Turpentine Creek have a mission. That mission is to rescue and take care of big cats that were abused, neglected, abandoned. This one, Hercules, is being rehabilitated to re-enter the savanna on premises.
Talk to the tongue. “Taking animals from the wild sucks” sayeth king of jungle.
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Back in the land of lamps, plates and homemade waffles, it’s breakfast with my aunts, mom and gramma. All simply heroes to me.
♥ At the table with the Great Ladies ♥
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Here’s three generations of Brava in front of the chapel. I would have loved to have dressed in traditional Korean hanbok too, but I got to wear the bridesmaid gown, which was an honor, of course.
Tora Brava, Gramma Brava, Mamma Brava
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And yes, there was a wedding, and it started like this…
*anticipation*
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It was a beautiful ceremony. When we went in the day was light and dusky in the forest. You could see all that change during the ritual as most of the chapel was made of clear glass and nature. The ceremony was complete. Then, released into the electric night, everyone and their uncle proceeded to get drunk off their asses and made a run for the nearest lake. It was awesome. Thank you, Arkansas. WE LOVE YOU AND GOOD NITE!!!
@THE CENTER on a midsummer’s night
‘Twas a beautiful evening post-rain, the air distilled, a taut summer breeze… perfect for a midsummer night’s salon at THE CENTER. Ed Bennett and Dusty Wright of Culture Catch had asked me to perform my rendition of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, which got the crowd really riled up and hopping (but the party was already in full-swing, well into the night…). Dusty and Michael on acoustic guitars, Jacob Miller on piano, and me on vocals. Brooding, intense, slow, the guys really hit it, even Tori Amos would’ve been proud. I mean, how often do you hear an entire crowd of drunken revelers singing along with you, singing THIS song, fully acoustic, complete with headbangers in the front row? Indeed! It was a good time.
photos by chris carr
The night was replete with organic wine bar, runway show, a banquet table lavished with towers of chocolate that stretched into infinity, bands, storytellers, and complimentary spa massages on the rooftop. Let me just say that I do believe this is the way to live, just in case there was any question.
