A Summer Break
July 31, 2017 Leave a comment
and the chapters in between
July 31, 2017 Leave a comment
January 16, 2017 7 Comments
November 27, 2016 Leave a comment
Sign of the Times: Chapel of the Chimes
Having said that, I can’t promise fidelity to regular monthly entries, although I will try. Writing is a solitary, difficult endeavor when forced. It can’t often express everything inside me, although I love it so.
August 31, 2015 Leave a comment
May 26, 2015 2 Comments
May 26, 2014 Leave a comment
You would hit the books most of your life in your hometown of Pittsburgh, PA until your twenties, when you would spend most of the years after college having roommates and misadventures and working in your dream job in a city you weren’t completely sold on, even taking it for granted, until it’s 20 years later, and you’re still here. Many times you would want to quit San Francisco, but you just couldn’t quite pull the trigger.
You would fall in love before you turn 30 and lose your job and man in one year. But you would travel to Paris at the end of the year with a ragtag band of your two sisters and two of your friends from high school and college, so that you would return to San Francisco, not only tinged with sorrow, but also the joie de vivre of that magical city. You would clean up after the party you had in your twenties and start figuring out in your thirties how you would want the rest of your life to look like. Your Paris gave you the spirit, and you would try to recapture and infuse it. You would tell people what you don’t want. The things you would love most–music, writing and your family and friends–are your saviors.
June 17, 2013 Leave a comment
February 14, 2013 1 Comment
Last weekend, I randomly popped in a cassette tape (remember those?) that turned out to be a collection of love songs, one being a 1996 hit single by R&B singer Kenny Lattimore entitled “For You.”
I recalled I wrote a profile about its songwriter, Kenny Lerum, when I was a magazine writer, and after realizing I didn’t have a personal copy, I decided to chase it down, going almost immediately to the San Francisco Public Library to retrieve one. Although it was one of my smaller articles, truth be told, it’s more or less for sentimental reasons that I desired to have it now, in time for Valentine’s Day no less.
August 11, 2012 Leave a comment
I remember watching Liz Masakayan on TV growing up in the burbs when a sport that is beach volleyball was in its infancy. I was awestruck by her athleticism and all her competitors in general because it seemed you had to be an all-around athlete to succeed.
I thought how cool it was that she could just be known by one name, her surname, which was four syllables long. And I dreamed that one day I would meet her. And so, I did.
(Cover photo & photos by Aaron Chang)
July 29, 2012 Leave a comment
When I was a magazine writer, Olympic champion diver Victoria Manalo Draves was hands-down one of my favorite Olympians whom I had covered. Delightful to speak with, she had the quintessential Olympic, as well as American, story.
In 2005, I got a call from the City College of San Francisco, asking for a copy of my article because it was honoring Mrs. Draves as outstanding alumna for that spring’s graduation class. Five years later, she passed away at the age of 85.
All afternoon, I was looking for the beautifully handwritten card she sent me after my article was published that I kept on my desk, but I guess I had stored it when other things started to clutter up the space. She was such a gracious person, and I am honored to have had gotten to know her, even for a moment for a little ole story.