The answer, of course, is both. The better question is: why would we ask this question? Because Koreans do. One of the most sweetly jarring things I noticed when visiting Korea for the first time in 1992 (while on tour with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra) was a national obsession with not being Japan. The hotel […]
Don’t worry, my pretensions are modest this time–I just stole his title. It’s Korea day 2 if you count an evening to get to the hotel, have a drink, and crash. I don’t. An aside about business travel: when I travel in my real life, I’m about as low-budget as they come. I’m happier in […]
I’m in Korea and Japan for two weeks on business, and I thought my email home might make a reasonable sort of blog post, so here goes: I’ve arrived safely and found my way through the usual hassles of getting cash, bus to hotel, checked in, and so forth. Now I’m in the club floor […]
Here’s my dad’s latest column for a Butte, MT rag, the Roun’Town Review, to be published in April. Reprinted without consultation or permission. You tell ’em, Pop! (Pop pictured here with Candy, back when she lived with Mom and Dad.) 20,000 Casualties later Paul F. Vang This last month we observed the third anniversary of […]
I just had that special French press moment. I was greedy. I’d enjoyed my morning coffee—lovingly prepared by the lovely V—so much, I just had to take that last sip, the one full of grounds and sludge. But there was something good in the moment: I was reading this column by the Bay Area’s own […]
I spent the day at the courthouse reading the Nolo Press book on neighbor law today. Why? The lot next to my house has “red-tagged” seven trees, meaning the owners have applied for a permit to remove them, most likely because they mean to build a house there. Naturally my neighbors and I have opinions […]
Because somebody (specifically my blog mom, Kimberly) actually asked, here are pictures of my cats. As if I need to be asked to show pictures of my cats! In order of seniority, Norton the anthology of cats, Gjetost (aka Cheese Kitty), and Candy. You might be wondering if a labrador retriever qualifies as a cat. […]
When we adopted my parents’ eight-year-old black lab, Candy, Mom and Dad said that she slept on her dog bed. Turns out she prefers the couch, though, to which Mom suggested the trick was to place stacks of books and magazines on the couch. This worked for a few days, but then it led to […]
Something music geeks are known to do a lot is sing obscure songs with words changed slightly to suit the occasion. Music geeks who went to a church school are even worse–we do the same with obscure hymns. Just now our dog Candy tried to get me to make her dinner, even though Victoria had […]
because: when it’s cold out, the plastic NYTimes bag of warm poop in your pocket makes a fabulous hand-warmer you meet the neighbors who have completely ignored you all those years you went jogging past you get to stop to offer treats and not have to admit to yourself that you’re so out of breath […]