There are so many memories I have of Steven, I could write a volume of them.

I can't remember when I first met him, it was sometime in the past three or four years, when he moved to San Francisco. He just became a fast friend. I really got to know him when we worked together on the Asian American Film Festival. Many late nights at the office, sharing rides home and complaints of how with the non-profit wages he was earning he could never save up for a "rock" for Cindy.

What strikes me as I conjure my memories of him is how many of them are brought together by that damned goofy grin that Steven always had, particularly when he was drunk. When he had it on, he seemed to glow, and to be transported to some transcendent space where everything was one-hundred percent, positively, right on.

A couple of the memorable times I remember witnessing the Steven grin:

When he and Cindy hit the dance floor at Sooyoung and Fiona's wedding last year. The floor in that Chinese restaurant had been packed for a while, and then all of a sudden it cleared, and Steven and Cindy appeared. It must have been Michael Jackson, or some 80's song, because I remember thinking, "Damn, he is a smooth dude", and then "Damn, he’s got moves straight from 1986!" That moment is imprinted in my mind not only because of his dancing, but because of the look of complete contentment and satisfaction on his face – being there at that wedding, with all of his friends, and dancing with Cindy on the second floor of a Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles.

Seeing Versus with Steven last year at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. We all thought that this was our last chance to see them live (rumors of their impending break-up were running around), so we were making the most of it. I remember Steven standing there, intently enjoying all of the songs and leaning over and telling me that Versus was his favorite band about seven times. Then all of a sudden came the point when Versus played that one song I can't remember the name of, the one that always inspires a certain ritual act, and Steven ran up onstage and crawled around like a cat. How can I possibly ever forget this?

Here is to our good friend Steven – his smile, his love for life, his friendship. He will be missed.

-Chi-hui Yang

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