I spent Election Day walking a precinct in Dublin in a get-out-the-vote effort for Congressman Jerry McNerney. Earlier, I had dropped off my ballot with Mom, in what will likely be the last time I vote in my hometown. I walked with fellow volunteer Mary as we went door-to-door in search of Democrats and other McNerney supporters who hadn’t gone to the polls yet.

By the time I started driving back from the campaign headquarters at 8pm, the radio had already announced that Barack Obama had won the presidency. I immediately headed to the McNerney Campaign party at Dublin’s IBEW building to celebrate.

Robbyn from the campaign staff handed me a backstage pass to hang out with the staff; it was a nice reunion with Jerry and his wife Mary, as well as some long-time campaign volunteers and staff (Bill, Gary, Shilpa, Yolanda, and others).

Later, the local media conducted TV interviews with Jerry, During the KTVU interview, I suddenly had the urge to run to the camera to get on TV. Check out this KTVU page, where you can see me jumping around on the left-side of the crowd:

ktvu.com/video/17896441/index.html

———-

On a down note, Prop 8 appears to have passed, but it remains to be seen what more will happen on the legal and political front. The struggle for equality continues.

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Drive-by protesters spotted in South City

(11-03) 19:30 PST — Two people in a blue hatchback sporting “No on Prop 8″ signs, have been sighted in parts of South San Francisco and San Bruno, engaging in what spectators have dubbed “drive-by protesting.” They were first spotted on Saturday, driving around the intersection of El Camino Real and Westborough, where a large group of “Yes on 8″ campaigners had gathered in the rain rallying support for the measure. Witnesses reported that as the hatchback made a left turn at the intersection, the passenger held up a “No on 8″ sign outside the window and shouted “No on 8″ to the crowds at the street corners.

The female accomplice said, “These ‘Yes on 8′ people have been taking over El Camino Real for the past three weeks. It angers me that there are people in our town cheering about discrimination. We felt that we had to do something to show them that not everybody shares their views.”

VOTE NO ON PROP 8

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more animals

O Hai. I just wanted to post this because it’s so cute.

I have Glenda to thank for getting me hooked on the strange interweb phenomenon known as icanhascheezburger.com, aka lolcats. The founders of the website were at LapPop3 during APAture, who were promoting their new book with Min-Jung’s help.

asian america | No Comments »

Wow, APAture is turning 10 this year! Hard to believe that it’s been that long since APAture was born, and it’s still going strong! I remember when I was a young, bright-eyed college student who went to my first APAture in 2001. It was shortly after 9/11, many people were shaken by that tragedy, but came together to talk about what we were feeling. It was that first encounter with the sights, sounds, and energy of APAture that got me hooked with Kearny Street Workshop. 

This year we have 10 nights of performances, beginning on September 18 with the gallery opening. On Saturday, September 20, I will be with my fellow film curators Chris and Yasmine to present the Film Night, featuring Richard Wong and HP Mendoza, the makers of Colma: the Musical. And there are many more highlights throughout. 

So yes! APAture is great! Everybody go now! 

Update: We had a lovely time throughout the two-week festival. Claire Light, the official live-blogger for APAture 2008, posted a detailed account of the festival here.

Also check out Samantha Chanse’s YouTube videos of her APAture featured artist performance (beginning with “PART 1: Truth is Real”. I made fun of her children’s book, but I didn’t intend to be mean about it.

Update 2: It’s not too late to join the APAture celebrations this year. Kearny Street Workshop will present a series of events looking back at the history of APAture in the program Shifted Focus: 10th Anniversary APAture Retrospective Exhibition and Performance Series. This series is being presented in conjunction with the de Young Museum’s exhibit Asian/American/Modern Art. Shifted Focus opens October 25.

asian america, expired, the arts | No Comments »

 . . . testing testing blog check testing one two three . . . 

Oh good, this blog thingy still works. Just needs a little dusting and widgetizing.

A lot has happened since my last post. My apologies to the five of you reading this, for being a bad blogger, never posting anything on a regular basis, blah blah blah, so busy, self-immolation, gomennasai, wah wah. Please excuse me for moving to South City, getting hitched, helping with APAture, designing a movie poster, and planning a second wedding. Oh, and on top of that, I’m moving again next month.

To make up for the dearth of content over the past year, I’ll try publishing a series of “expired posts”; now-untimely things I would have blogged about, had I bothered logging in to my blog. At the same time I’ll throw in some semi-timely items when they occur to me, thus making it seem that I have a lot to write about.

No guarantees either way, though, I don’t exactly have a sterling track record.

life happenings, updates | No Comments »

I just realized that there’s only a couple of days left to vote online for the best music video from Locus Arts Do It Yourself (DIY) Music Video contest. Seven teams of filmmakers and musicians are competing, to premiere their music video and perform their music, at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.

The voting ends this Friday, February 29; vote here.

This one, “Slow Machines”, is my personal favorite, although I thought that all of them were great in their own ways. Especially considering that the teams were only given about a month to complete their videos, on a nothing-budget. It was great to see the music videos and watch the bands perform live at the premiere night a couple of weeks ago. Kudos to Brandon Bigelow (Locus Arts co-director) for pulling everything together. I can’t wait to see who’s going to win a spot in SFIAAFF.

asian america, the arts | No Comments »

One of my favorite local musicians, Goh Nakamura, teamed up with with the über-talented Dino Ignacio to create this cool music video and ode to San Francisco. It’s a featured video on YouTube and is racking up the hits.

asian america, the arts | No Comments »

life happenings | No Comments »

Wow, hard to believe that it’s almost time for APAture, my favorite time of the year next to birthdays and federally-mandated holidays. Tomorrow night is the Gallery Opening; I’ll probably be there late in the evening, but I can’t wait to see what is in store this year.

I’m happy that Thien Pham (APAture 2006 featured zine artist, and fellow APAture committee member in 2002) has taken his turn at this year’s design:

———–
Here are the lovely details:

September 18 - 29, 2007: KSW’s 9th annual APAture: a window on the art of asian pacific americans

presenting the work of over 100 visual artists, filmmakers, musicians, writers, performers, cartoonists, and zinesters in nine San Francisco venues

ksw’s space180 • intersection for the arts • the lab • the make-out room • chinese culture center • victoria theatre • bottlecapp • actor’s center of san francisco • manilatown center • reserve your seat now by purchasing advance tickets at www.manja.org

KSW’s APAture festival runs for 12 straight days, with different arts presentations, performances, panel discussions, and workshops happening every day. KSW’s APAture features a film and video night at Victoria Theatre a music showcase and standup comedy showcase at the Make-Out room, a comics & zines expo, workshops and panels, a visual arts exhibition, and several interdisciplinary programs. For full festival information, please visit www.apature.org.

Reserve your seat now by purchasing advance tickets at www.manja.org.

See full festival schedule by visiting http://www.kearnystreet.org/programs/ksw-next/apature2007/2007schedude.html

Register for APAture workshops by visiting http://www.kearnystreet.org/programs/ksw-next/apature2007/2007workshops.html

2007 Featured artists

Joel Barraquiel Tan
Goh Nakamura
Lark Pien
Jesse Bie / Steamroller
Misako Inaoka
Emiko Omori
Prince Gomolvilas
For full schedule visit www.apature.org

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18th, 7 - 9.30PM: Gallery Opening Reception / Festival Kick-Off

Kearny Street Workshop’s space180
180 Capp St. @17th St., 3rd floor
$5 suggested donation; no one turned away for lack of funds.
Featured Visual Artist: Misako Inaoka

Join us in celebrating the opening night of APAture, and wander through the halls of 180 Capp to explore drawings, paintings, textiles, and installations from over 30 Bay Area visual artists, including featured visual artist Misako Inaoka. The opening reception will feature sounds by APAture artist DJ Zita.

Opening reception sponsored by Charles Chocolates and Rosenblum Cellars.

Participating artists:

Mark Baugh-Sasaki
Sita K. Bhaumik
Catrina Chaos
Ali Dadger
Jenny Eng
Mayumi Hamanaka
Amy M. Ho
Korina Jocson
Lucien Kubo
Susanna Kwan
Mike Lai
Stephanie Lie
Lucy Kalyani Lin
Niana Liu
Juliana Ma
Amal Mongia
Mari Naomi
Ben Nghia Needham
Brian Nguyen
noa-
Hang Phan
Pallavi Sharma
Eve Shen
Jocelyn Shu
Charlene Tan
Truong Tran
Katy Tsai
Scott Tsuchitani
Lawrence Yang

and
Misako Inaoka

About KSW’s APAture: A Window on the Art of Asian Pacific Americans

KSW’s APAture is a multidisciplinary arts expo presenting and examining the work of emerging Asian Pacific American artists, living or working in the San Francisco Bay Area. The mission of Kearny Street Workshop’s APAture is to provide artists with an early experience presenting their work at a large event; to build audiences for emerging artists; to strengthen the sense of community among our artists; and to raise awareness of the existence of and diversity within the APA arts community. The KSW-Next group will be organizing, jurying, and staffing the event.

Kearny Street Workshop (KSW) is the nation’s oldest multidisciplinary Asian Pacific American arts organization. Founded in 1972 on Kearny Street and now based in the Mission District, KSW’s mission is to present and produce art that enriches and empowers APA communities. KSW offers a range of arts programming, including workshops, visual arts exhibitions, publications and a small press, our APAture festival, and more. In 2007, KSW celebrates its 35th Anniversary.

asian america, the arts | 1 Comment »

. . . my blog died. I deleted my Wordpress database by accident. I wish I could say it was cleansing to wipe out the past. But frankly, I’m still bummed about it.

Since then, a number of things happened which I didn’t get a chance to post:

* My high school reunion. I had a blast. (see here)

* The new AAWAA anthology Cheers to Muses was released at the Chinese Culture Center on August 17, the day before the reunion. My project Madonna of Asia is one of the pieces featured.

* While I didn’t go to the anthology release (shame on me), I did go to CCC the day before on August 16, because I thought that was the anthology release day. Sorry, Mark and Mom, but thanks for coming to support me.

* On the plus side, I did experience a Sylvia Chang sighting, who flew all the way from Hong Kong (through a hurricane, I might add) to attend a screening for American Fusion.

* Too bad I couldn’t think of anything intelligent to say, other than to ask her the following: 1) what was it like to kiss Esai Morales, 2) what was it like to kiss Fabio, and 3) how did you pretend to be interested in Karl Maka.

asian america, life happenings, the arts, updates | 1 Comment »