Year of the Snake

With the year of the snake slithering in, I am getting started on 2025 after the holidays and the fires. It’s been beyond shocking to hear childhood friends have lost their family homes (listed on GoFundMe directories circulating here and there), a mile up from where my family used to live on North Lake Avenue, and to keep stumbling across a photo of a torched middle school auditorium, where I’m pretty sure I participated in an orchestra program and witnessed a girl’s cello get knocked over and fall to pieces.

Another friend’s home is one of few still standing on her Altadena block but uninhabitable. I remember the house fondly, light flooding in through windows surrounding an interior courtyard and an odd set of stairs leading to a room that was elevated from the ground level but not quite a second story. (She was actually my little sister’s friend but I’d tag along to their playdates because I didn’t know how to make my own friends then.) It’s going to be a long road ahead even for those whose houses survived, and I hope we will remember to support them in the months ahead.

Wildfires are not an uncommon occurrence in California, of course, but this time it felt like something that wasn’t just on the news. It incinerated homes I’ve visited and could easily have been my parents’ house, had the winds blown that way, or perhaps my place, where I’m now seeing the surrounding eucalyptus trees as kindling, not just as a provider of shade and host to beetles.

I shot my album music videos at a couple northern Pasadena locations and was relieved to see that both were still in operation as relief hubs. My director Jon and I shot “You and a Song” at the Lineage Performing Arts Center (a black box theater improbably sharing a building with a CVS, right by where the Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles was for decades) and I put up the Korean version on YouTube. Thanks to my mom for the Korean lyric translation!

I was interested to read what people took in fleeing the Eaton Fire—what would you take with you? My baby sister evacuated to my place and made sure to bring her prized phone charger. Other than essentials, I packed my “go bag” with hard drives, notebooks, and some snacks, and put my main gayageum by the door. Advised to pack something for comfort but having little room left, I put a small, crocheted Miffy dressed as the Vermeer Milkmaid—which I recognize from the Animal Crossing art dealer but is from the Rijksmuseum—in a Ziploc to keep it clean. My sister said that she doesn’t know anything I’m more scared of than dust but I fear ashes and sawdust far more.

Stuff is just stuff, and that’s true, but the material stuff can unlock treasured memories and personal histories. How much access to the intangible are we losing with the places and things that burned down?

I was tasked with finding out which of two kinds of vegan cup noodles tastes better. Soon Ramyun vs. Vegan Shin Ramyun. There was a clear winner.

The dan dan noodles at Pine & Crane are also a winning vegan option. My friend/audio engineer Keith regularly meets up with his astronomy club in front of the Silver Lake restaurant to give people an opportunity to look through telescopes at planets and moons. Next Thursday night (2/6) from 8 to 10pm—assuming it’s not cloudy—you’ll also spot me among the telescopes and under Jupiter with Liza (who you may remember as a dancer in my workout video but is better known as a first-call harpist). I’ll sing some Brazilian tunes, and we’ll try out a few harp + Korean harp (i.e., gayageum) arrangements. Another harpist, Ginger Rose, will also be joining us to play music—making for a harp attack! ^{A harp murmur when only two of us are playing.}

And next Friday (2/7), I’ll be playing a solo set for a Lunar New Year show. It’s free and for all ages—and in the quiet suburb of Tujunga, which is ideal if you’re in the northern part of LA county and want to avoid getting mired in traffic downtown.

You may have noticed I switched to a new platform for the email. I’m still finding my way around but I can tell you that newsletters will now be archived here.

🔊 A week or two ago, I got in my car and felt something like a pang of hunger, but for the music of Djavan, and he’s the only artist I’ve been wanting to listen to since. I haven’t listened to him much but the singularity of his clear voice and chill yet charged music suddenly clicked out of the blue.