What’s Going On?

The Asian Pacific American Heritage Awards Ceremony took place at the elegant Herbst Theatre located within the War Memorial Building on Van Ness Avenue on Monday. A huge turnout of guests attended this yearly event that kicks off Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in San Francisco. San Francisco May0r Ed Lee made it official in San Francisco by signing a proclamation in the midst of SF politicians, dignitaries, sponsors, and citizens of the city and neighboring cities.

The program started off with a the singing of the National Anthem by the SF Gay Men’s Choir. Emceeing the program was KPIX’s Thuy Vu, who started in the San Francisco’s CBS affiliate as a news anchor/reporter, but now co-hosts CBS San Francisco’s “Eye on the Bay”. The program highlighted many of the local sponsors that made this whole program possible, community leaders that also helped put together the program, various Asian community groups that performed traditional dances, the awards ceremony, and the surprise reveal of a wonderfully made birthday cake for Mayor Ed Lee.

Following the program, a lengthy list of food and drink sponsors hosted tastings from their businesses in the Green Room and the balcony that overlooks Van Ness Ave. and City Hall. More information about the event can be seen at www.apasf.org

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SF Gay Men's Choir sings the National Anthem

CBS San Francisco's "Eye on the Bay" Thuy Vu emcees the program

SF Mayor Ed Lee signs the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month proclamation

Emalyn Lapus receives the Community Leadership Award

"4C the Power" receives the Community Impact Award

Cute kid comes out from the center of the group punching and kicking

SF Mayor Ed Lee is surprised with a wonderful birthday cake

SF Mayor Ed Lee blows out the candles on his cake

SF Mayor Ed Lee laughs as he realizes that the candles are "trick candles"

SF Mayor Ed Lee takes the first cut into his cake

SF Mayor Ed Lee and KPIX's Thuy Vu dance on stage with the performers dressed in traditional Asian ethnic wear

SF Mayor Ed Lee's cake before it is cut and served to APA Awards guests

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The Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival Grand Parade hit the streets of San Francisco yesterday. Starting at City Hall, sharing space right next to this year’s Earth Day San Francisco, and finishing off in the heart of Japantown. The Grand Parade caps off two weeks of live entertainment in music, cultural dance performances, cultural arts, martial arts, education, and so much more.

The weather seemed to cooperate with San Franciscan’s this weekend. Saturday having hot and sunny skies, while Sunday brought dense fog early and then broke apart a bit towards the later afternoon. As long as there was no rain, it’s perfect weather in San Francisco and a great day for a parade.

The parade had the usual units that attend annually, but what makes this parade a great one is that so much of the Japanese culture is shown all in just a two-hour span, from music to dance. Highlights of the parade are seeing the little children march down with their classmates supporting their schools or community centers, visiting pageant queens and their courts from Seattle, Honolulu, and LA, the past year and current reigning queens and court of San Franciso as well, demonstrations in martial arts or sword weaponry, taiko drumming, and the carrying of different Japanese shrines.

The one unit that surprisingly brought back memories growing up in San Francisco was an old Muni bus that drove down the route. It was of the old days, though freshly painted, and I can still remember riding it to and from home. My earliest memories on that style of bus was that you can ring the bell to inform the driver to stop multiple times. Now you can only pull the string for the bell once or “push” a button. The time that I can remember the most was ringing the bell almost eight times before I almost got in trouble because I was so excited to hear that chime, the driver was nice enough not to yell at me and traumatize me for life. Ahh those were the days. One more thing, I just remembered, do you even remember when the bus windows would rust or get stuck and they’d never open or close? Do you also remember that they seem to have stronger engines and drove faster than the ones that we have today? They broke down a lot more back then than they do now and less pollution are the benefits of a new fleet.

Anyhow, going back to the parade, the parade was lots of fun seeing familes and friends enjoy themselves and myself also being able to see friends that I’ve met throughout the years. It’s just a fun and exciting place to be every year and that’s one of the main reasons why I attend.

Following the parade, music entertainment resumed, the annual anime fashion show took to the stage, and the food booths were constantly busy. My mouth waters just thinking about the good eats.

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2012 Cherry Blossom Festival Queen of Honolulu

Do you remember riding these buses? I even think they're faster than the ones today!

2012 Cherry Blossom Festival Queen and her Court

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The Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival Queen Program last night put on it’s 45th Annual Program. This year five lovely ladies competed for the queen title. Miki Fukai, Asaki Osato, Megumi Yoshida, Manami Kidera, and Chihiro Hirai put on a great show at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas in Japantown.

Scoring for the competition was broken up into five catagories: Essay (15%), Personal Interview (20%), Introduction Speech (20%), On-Stage Interview (30%), and Talent (15%)

The competition started off with introduction speeches in traditional kimonos, the ladies then sat down to answer five questions with a 4-minute limit, but none of the contestants used up their whole time. The ladies then presented gifts to their sponsors followed up with the talent portion of the program.

Talent portion started with Chihiro Hirai who performed a monologue. Manami Kidera sang a song in Japanese. Asaki Osato danced to her own choreographed dance. Miki Fukai played the trumpet with accompanied music. Megumi Yoshida sang a song in English with an accompanied bass player.

Following the talent portion, some awards were given out and the 2011 Cherry Blossom Queen and her court came up on stage. Queen Jeddie Kawahatsu gave her closing remarks about her court and she thanked them individually.

Lastly, the ladies came out on stage in their evening wear and performed a quick routine before they lined up to have the winners announced. When the names were being called the moment that was unforgettable was when the Queen was to be announced. Asaki Osato was stunned to find out that her name was being called. She was in disbelief. As she was being sashed and crowned she gave out a couple of confused-like grunts as if she couldn’t believe it. This made parts of the audience laugh as the theater was silent with no background music. Everyone could hear her and see her smirks. Just made me laugh inside, but trust me I was trying to keep my composure as a photographer.

Overall, the program was good though this is one of the first pageants that I’ve been to that had less than at least nine contestants. The lighting was a bit disappointing, but then again, this is moreso a movie theater and not really a theater focusing on live performances, though there are performances there sometimes.

Queen Program results for 2012:

Queen: Asaki Osato

1st Princess: Megumi Yoshida

Tomodachi Award Recipient (Miss Congeniality): Miki Fukai

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Eight young ladies competed at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in San Francisco for the coveted title of Miss San Francisco and Miss Golden Gate. This year the scholarship pageant had the privilege of having Alissa Anderegg, 2011’s Miss Golden Gate Outstanding Teen, sing the National Anthem to start the program. Emcee for the evening was Nicole Honaker, Miss SF 2010.

The ladies competed in five segments:  Question and Answer, Physical Fitness, Talent, Evening Wear, and Interview (which took place prior to the on stage performance). Special Entertainment was provided by the Shan-Yee Poon Ballet School and the current reigning title holders of Miss SF Outstanding Teen 2012 & Miss Golden Gate Outstanding Teen 2012.

The Miss SF and Miss GG program had the privilege of having visiting delegates from various counties introduce themselves and introductions of the young 2012 San Francisco Princesses. Before the crowning and sashing of the 2012 title holders, the past 2011 title holders gave their farewell speeches. Many thanks go out to 2011’s title holders Miss Crystal Lee, Miss Holly Heiserman, Miss Jasmine Lee, and Miss Alissa Anderegg for their service in the community throughout the past year.

Family and friends cheered in support of their loved ones as the winners were announced and with complete surprise and shock to herself, Miss Vivian Wei was crowned Miss San Francisco 2012 and gave her walk across the stage in awe and happiness.

Congratulations to the following title holders:

Miss San Francisco 2012: Vivian Wei

Miss Golden Gate 2012: Sara Choi

Miss San Francisco Outstanding Teen 2012: Elyse Vincenzi

Miss Golden Gate Outstanding Teen 2012: Grace Lee Grant

Miss San Francisco 1st Runner-Up: Marcy Chun

Miss San Francsico 2nd Runner-Up: Lindsey Nakashima

Miss Congenialilty: Marcy Chun

Miss People’s Choice: Anna Lisa Matias

The Center for Asian American Media hosted the 30th Annual San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival for the past week and a half. The festival is the largest Asian American Film Festival in the United States and draws thousands of supporters every year. The red carpet is pulled out for famous celebrities and those that are up-and-coming. The festival honored Joan Chen for her great achievement in being a pioneer of Asian American media.

This year kicked off at the famous Castro Theatre, with the world premier of “White Frog” directed by Quentin Lee, with a great supporting cast. The feature starred renowned actress Joan Chen, BD wong, Booboo Stewart, Harry Shum Jr., and Tyler Posey. After the premier, guests headed over to the Asian Art Museum to enjoy the always fun and festive Opening Night Gala to mingle, eat and drink, and dance the night away.

Over the weekend, the festival held a program called Directions in Sound, where artists can display their talents through music. The festival also hosted the Festival Forum, which is the festivals largest free program, where guests can watch local artists, performers, and other media. The forum was held in Japantown’s Peace Plaza. The Centerpiece film for the festival was “Yes, We’re Open” by Richard Wong and H.P. Mendoza.

The festival held surprisingly the most entertaining program that I have ever been to at the SFIAAFF, that program came last Wednesday when Tadashi Nakamura brought his documentary about Jake Shimabukuro to the big screen in its premier. The well written and captured scenes throughout Jake’s tour around the world playing the ukulele was one of the best documentaries that I’ve ever seen. Following the documentary was a special live performance by Jake Shimabukuro. Throughout his performance he was joined on stage by The Dominator, who won a contest giving him the opportunity to play live on stage.  Jake then followed up by playing alongside his brother and his mother who sang. The program at the Castro Theatre was a sell out and I cannot remember a time when the whole building was filled.

The SF Closing Night program, Prison Dancer: The interactive Web Musical, was very unique and different, where the audience took participation in this interactive experience. The web musical is based on the Philippine prisoners who were known for dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. The program featured the web based media that was made alive through a karaoke-styled performance by the characters themselves. The characters also got the audience to move and dance along to one of the created dances. The web series will be updated about every two weeks on their website.

Finally, as the festival closed out their week in San Francisco, San Jose became the heart of the festival as the last remaining three days of the festival moved about 50 miles south. The San Jose Opening Night feature was Michael Kang’s “Knots” with actors, such as Sung Kang and Illeana Douglas. The movie was followed up by a gala at the San Jose Museum of Art.

The SFIAAFF Jury Award Winners for 2012 are:
In The Family: Comcast Narrative Award
A Lot Like You: Best Documentary Award
Director Patrick Wang (In The Family): Emerging Filmmaker Award

Loni Ding Award: Mina T. Son for Roots and Reality

If you would like more information about the festival please visit their website at www.caamedia.org

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The Asian American Donor Program presented the 5th Laugh For Lives last Friday night, a comedy show benefit at the Palace Fine Arts to help raise money, awareness, and to get people registered in the Bone Marrow Donor Program. The event featured 5 comics; Mark Zhang (guest comic emcee for the evening), Shawn Felipe, KT Tatara, Danny Cho, and Eliot Chang. DJing the evening was DJ RJ “kool raul” with a special appearance from Flower, a donor who was able to reach out and supply bone marrow for her intended recipient.

Throughout the evening, guests were given the opportunity to register to be a bone marrow donor in the lobby of the auditorium. With nearly all of the seats being sold out and being a great turn out, the awareness of this program reached many.

The evening was filled with non-stop laughing that had people at the edge of their seats with jokes from Japanese, Korean and Chinese comedians. Though some of the jokes were dirty, a majority of the audience related to them and had a good time. The attendees ranged in age and so despite some of the off-the-wall jokes, I believe everyone left feeling happy and pleased to support a great cause.

If you would like to know more about the Asian American Donor Program, please visit their website at http://www.aadp.org

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The Chinese New Year Community Fair ends the festivities for the two week long stint of CNY celebrations in SF, but of course the new year continues.

The two-day community fair brought in thousands of tourists and locals to San Francisco’s Chinatown offering great deals on products and services. The weather held up this weekend without any rain, until late Sunday evening, but it gave way to having a great time at the fair for all the festivities.

On Washington Street, performers took to the stage to bring smiles, laughter, and amazement to people’s faces. Sunday’s line up included acrobats, dancers, magicians, and a taiko performance. Also taking to the stage were Miss San Francisco Chinatown 2012 and Miss Chinatown 2nd and 3rd Princesses who drew all the raffle tickets for the amazing prizes. This year the Grand Prize winner was present in the crowd and received two round-trip tickets by Southwest Airlines. She was very shocked and happy that she won.

Gung Hay Fat Choy, Everyone

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The San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Southwest Airlines brought together a fantastic parade for the “Year of the Dragon”. There were lots of lions and dragons present at this parade. It was great to see so many kids dressed up as dragons and if it weren’t scary enough, there were kids in a whole bunch of panda hats, I think it’s baseball season coming up. If you don’t understand what that means, well Pablo Sandoval who plays for the San Francisco Giants is nicknamed, “Panda”. I digress, the parade started promptly at 5:15pm and completed it’s final journey down Kearny Street to the parade finish at about 8:30pm.

The parade featured many of San Francisco and the Bay Area’s drill teams, marching bands, lion dance groups, kungfu studios, schools from K-12, major and minor sponsors of the parade, Miss Chinatown USA 2012 and her court with the other contestants also, and several dragons that zig-zagged through the whole entire parade route.

The grand finale was simply amazing. I must have choked on so much smoke and black powder at the lighting of two huge ropes of firecrackers. I even got hit in the face several times by flying casings, I guess it’s wise to have eye protection, but I only had ear plugs. The finale finished off with several lions atop poles that were over 10 feet in height, two huge lion heads that had to be held by more than 5 people each, a few 20-yard dragons, and one large dragon that seemed to be almost 50 yards in length and held up by about 30-40people.

An estimated 1.5million have attended the parade, but the number is not exact. According to San Francisco’s Police Chief, Greg Suhr, he stated that there were 1million SFPD stickers and those were all passed out therefore there were at least 1million people. Usually there is a more accurate count, but I guess it became a little ambiguous this year. Nevertheless, there were lots of people who lined the streets on a mild to slightly chilly night. Fortunately, there was no rain this year and having clear skies is probably one of the best things that could happen.

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Last night, the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) threw a launch party for the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival’s 30th year. The festival showcases a wide array of Asian American media from music to film. The launch party this year was held at 111 Minna which is a space used as an art gallery as well as a lounge/bar. The night kicked off with a good large crowd; more people came than expected. Festival Goers and other friends are expected to visit the largest Asian American Film Festival in the United States this coming March. Festival kicks off on March 8th and will run until the 18th with eight days in San Francisco and three days in San Jose.

For more festival information, please check out http://caamedia.org

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