I’ll be heading out to Barcelona with Kane & Jesse the 2nd week of June (*damn I must’ve been tired writing this the first time around). We’ve got no plans except to hit up an interactive media / new media event called OFFF in the city the first weekend, and then a 3-day music festival called Sonar before we leave. We also rigged it up so that we have an 8-hour layover in Amsterdam on the incoming flight. According to Jesse, downtown is really easy to get from the airport, so we could check our bags at the terminal and then take a quick tour of the city.

Other than that, I’ve just been trying to recover from the liver-destruction that occurred during my near 3-weeks in Seoul, followed by an amazing birthday planned by Michelle that was waiting for me when I came home. It really feels good to have friends who will go out of their way and travel a few hundred miles to hang out with you for a couple days. Also, big thanks to Amit for angel investing in the festivities… now I have to one up his face next year.

The King of Laos, aka Kane Liang, is having his birthday today (although at time of posting this shit should say November 4th). Happy birthday man… I’ve known you for 10 years now and I don’t see us parting ways anytime soon. I’m going to fly down to San Diego this weekend to celebrate with him and the beatmaster eLan, who just released a single on the prestigious new Modeselektor compilation: Modeselektion Vol.1. So much clout involved in getting a song on a release like that… words cannot describe. Intense props, elan.

I visited LA for Halloween which turned out to be pretty chill with j.chorng & crew in tow. We hit up J.Lounge which was 95% asian and 5% people who didn’t know it was going to be 95% asian. Quite legit though, Jesse’s pad is definitely a great spot for future mistakes.

Finally got around to hanging up michelle’s artwork.

I got a new desk that sits flush with the wall. It’s much, much better than the awkward huge desk I had prior. I’ve moved the studio monitors to the corners once I admitted to myself that Ableton is just not on my radar right now. Everything works nicely with the vinyl deck as well; my LPs are much more accessible and the stereo sound is noticeably improved.

Mr. Taemoo came over and we hit the slopes with Helen, Mich, and Jason. Excellent evening.

Lastly, it’s been stirfriday quite a bit lately… the dankattack of steamed veggies and marinated chicken is too easy of a dinner.

Jason taught me a thing or two about the 3 priority settings on my GF1. I’m still not comfortable with using them but it is so much easier to learn when someone explains it to you rather than reading some tutorial. Life’s good here at 924 Treat.

Been really digging CFCF‘s 2nd full length album, Continent. So glad I jumped the gun and pre-ordered this guy’s new record on vinyl despite that his first effort felt a bit empty. To my surprise, Continent is consistent, much more rich, but still retains the CFCF minimal/downtempo style that I’ve grown to love more and more. The attention to detail with the album artwork also threw me off a bit in a good way, as he has adorned the cover and inner sleeve with warm and worn whites accompanied by photos of, well, motherfuckin’ plants. The whole execution of it leaves you very content staring at it in your hands. Here’s a sampling of some of the best tracks:

I make a prediction… because last year, my good friend Dave did for ’09 and it all became true. I predict that 2010 will be a year of reflection, rewind, and most importantly relaxation. OK so these may just be hopeful wishes, but nonetheless I am feeling rather psychic tonight.

This notion came to me after my family and I visited my great Aunt Clara. She can drive a car, and still does weekly. She can carry on a conversation for hours. She is 4 foot, 11 inches. She is 95 and oh god do I love her. She’s the last of my Dad’s parent’s generation and probably the only relative I have that I can truly look at her and speak with her and suddenly want to be more Italian. Her house is in Monterey Park, before it became near entirely Chinese. We went to her place to visit and she was complaining to us how telemarketers call her up and immediately start speaking Chinese because her last name is Young (hah). Did I mention she incinerates trash in her back yard (yes, burning garbage) even though it has been illegal since the 1950′s? Anyhow, I just wanted to post up a photo of us two for context. I’m clearly on my knees and still clear her height by a good inch or two. It’s so cool.

Over the break was filled with family, work (bleh), and friends, as usual. I went to Bear Mountain twice thanks to the ping from Will ass Chang with J.Chorng in tandem with Michelle and the dance machine himself, Brian Han. I ended up snowboarding for 2 days, staying in Michelle’s relative’s cabin for two nights. Even though none of us four saw you Will, many fasho’s and thanks for the heads up because getting a good start on the season boarding has got me confident hitting jumps and boxes now. I bought my season pass to Heavenly in Tahoe and am going to go boarding again this weekend. New years was an absolute blast at the Chorng house, needless to say. Everyone who was there knows the real deal, aNYway.

Hope you all have a legit 2010, I’m damned excited about it. If you’re up in SF early next week, try to come out to an art show Michelle is going to be in called Intergalactic Space Travels. I just got back 2 pieces of hers I had framed even prior to knowing she was going to be in this show and I must say the work is getting more and more chalk full of dank-awesome.