tien beat

Festa Junina!!!!!! Celebrating the rural culture of Brasil (including dirty mustaches and unibrows) Mini Tien Concert (Mic Stand: Lucas) I'm having the time of my life. I didn't know what night life meant before this trip....seldom has the party ended before 5 a.m. I've met so many wonderful people, everyone is ridiculously hospitable and nice, and my portuguese is improving every day. 9 de Julho: (Rio de Janeiro) took the bus from GIG airport into Leblon. Called Felipe and Renato. Felipe met me at post 12 on Leblon beach. Renato picked us up, ate some Arabic food and had some mate tea. Met Felipe's family at their condo in Alto Leblon. Went to the lagoa (lake), then a Forro (traditional dance/music) club in Lapa (artsy area in Rio, lots of artists, musicians. Love it!). Learned to dance a bit. 10 de Julho: (Rio) got my cell phone working. Went on a walk, took a nap, ventured to Lapa on my own. Saw a band playing in a restaurant, met the guitar player, danced with so...

TIEN BEAT - SUMMER '10 Dear Friends, Today I encountered a group of children on the metro and they referred to me as "mister". Clearly I have entered the next stage of my life. Yes, I have turned 23 years old, and the first month or so of my 24th year has been quite pleasant, thank you very much! I had a very nice trip to Maryland, during which I attended my sister's graduation from medical school, played 2 shows in Easton, ate a lot of crabs, helped my sister move to Cleveland (her surgical residency starts soon at the Cleveland Clinic), hung out in Chicago, and returned to Los Angeles, without taking a single shower (almost true). I've moved out of yet another apartment in Los Angeles. I loved Echo Park, the culture, the music, the authentic Mexican tastes of the taco trucks, and so much more, but I did not love the smell of whatever died under the room I was renting, nor was I enamored of the fleas. On May 14th, I graduated from the University of Southern ...

was mildly concerned about life, but got a job and things have stabilized a bit. Thanks to randomness...made a friend at a Dayplayer show who hired me shortly afterward to be her accounting assistant. It's actually pretty fun. Working for a production company that does commercials and music videos. Also intern at Wyman records when I get the chance. Random random, thanks to the metro as well. Started taking the bus to and from work. A few nights ago heard a bunch of people speaking what sounded like portuguese sitting behind me. as you might know i took a semester of portuguese and I happen to be in love with Brazil. started a conversation, made friends, invited them to hang out. Breno, Renato, Evandro, Felipe, Kalen, and Paula. met up with them at their hostel and took two of the guys, Renato and Felipe, out w/ my buddies Trevor and James. Went to gold room in Echo Park. Felipe is passionate about education reform, gets along great w/ James. give him my copy of Theatre o...

"TIEN BEAT" the sporadic bulletin detailing the life of Tien January 2010 Hi everyone! I hope the new year is treating everyone well. I finally graduated from college, with a degree in Philosophy and a minor in Theatre. I loved USC and I'm glad I went to college, grandiose debt notwithstanding. I just moved to Echo Park, a vibrant locale near downtown Los Angeles. Plans: to get a day job, finish my latest acoustic album (Starboard Sessions) and the debut Dayplayer album. I'm really excited about both. I want to TOUR TOUR TOUR...that's the main overarching goal right now, career-wise. I'm tempted to say that there are many things I figured out in college, like who I am, what I believe in, what is right, what is REAL...but I don't know if that is really the case. If anything I am more confused about all of those things, but I will claim that I am more at peace with their indeterminacy and impermanence. I just take comfort in the notion that my persp...

TIEN BEAT june 2009 "the unreliably periodical account of Tien's life and musings" This is the best summer EVER.... I've been having such a crazy awesome time with life over the past month or so. School ended well, I was on TV, I've been enjoying the outdoors, I'm working on my new acoustic CD, I had a great trip to Maryland, bouncing around the northeast, and I believe I am getting paid to go to Vietnam in a few weeks. I only wish that I could have spent more time doing everything, but there's always next time. I've had so much fun being a human jungle gym and sedan chair for everyone's kids the past couple of weeks, but now I'm back in California, laid out on my dad's couch with a sore back, catching up on a week of unlimited blockbuster rentals. I've also had some enlightening, intellectually probing conversations lately with old and new friends; I will always treasure those as the truly priceless moments of travel and friendship,...

A couple of weeks into the semester, here's what's going on. We officially have a new president.  I will be following his actions closely, with optimism.  Classes are really great, I have a monkey class, a class taught by the current state treasurer of California, a class about what happens when we do things, and a class where we're currently learning about what people think about the meaning of words.  In other words, I have an anthropology class, a political science class, and two philosophy classes.   I went to the beach today and swung on the rings.  This will be a regular occurrence this semester:  taking advantage of the proximity of beaches.  Why not do homework on the sand? I'm at my dad's house right now...I haven't seen him in about 6 months, and it's the Vietnamese new year!  Hooray!

Hello all! I’m back at school…I haven’t been here in a while. Time to plug back into my alter-ego, the west-coast version of Tien. I’m not sure how that is different from the other me’s, but I definitely feel like I’m operating differently already. I had a wonderful holiday season in Maryland…it’s always so hard to leave. Semester at Sea seems like a lapsed dream. It was a saga so far removed from the familiarity of my usual routines. Even when I look at the pictures, I don’t remember what it felt like to be constantly in transit. I don’t know if it ever really sank in. I’ve been asked by several people what I learned on my voyage. I don’t think I can provide a satisfactory answer to this question. I couldn’t possibly distill my experience into any single realization, or even a handful of them. Every person I met along the way changed my perspective on the world, perhaps not fundamentally, but in a profound personal way. My most optimistic beliefs about humanity were continua...