It was a big day for us. Even seventeen years later, I can still remember walking up the “Alice in Wonderland”-like corridor, with the pattern of its wooden walls oriented downwards as the floor sloped…
Articles by Bryan
I Tried to Write a Gypsy Jazz Love Song
Ever since learning how to play “la pompe“, the signature rhythmic guitar style of gypsy jazz, I’ve wanted to write a song in that style. At the risk of sounding super nerdy, I was inspired…
The Point of Everything
A couple of weeks ago, I took some time off work to reflect on what I was trying to accomplish in my life. It very quickly dawned on me that I had basically “ghosted” through…
Why I Hate Yams (and Other Sweet Tubers)
When I was growing up, I spent my afternoons after school at my maternal grandparents’ apartment, waiting for my parents to come home. Being the eldest grandson in the family, my grandmother would dote on…
Falling Easy
I wrote this song about overcoming the uncertainty and nostalgia that comes with being itinerant. In case you were curious as to what the phoenix guitar sounds like, I play it at the end. Here’s a…
A Fender Firebird
Of all the mythical creatures I don’t believe in, the phoenix is my favorite. Throughout my life, I’ve learned and grown the most following abject failure (usually after I’d said to myself “I got this,…
On Forgetting and Happiness
I can barely remember the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in my life. I was 15 or 16, and my family and I were in Japan. My dad’s company had paid to send his entire…
Book Review: Disrupted
I’m super late to the party, but after a year in the tech world, it’s time for me to review one of my favorite books: Dan Lyon’s Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-up Bubble. By way…
A Weird Time to Waltz
This is a song I’ve been wanting to write for a while now. I titled it “A Weird Time to Waltz” because of the 7/4 (7 beats to a bar) sections in the song, and I…
A 1987 Japanese-made Squier Stratocaster
The electric guitar was invented in 1931 by George Beauchamp. Since then, thousands of iterations have appeared, with my favorite being the rocket-shaped Stratocaster. Produced by Fender since 1954, the Stratocaster has an illustrious history:…