What’s Going On?

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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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 Miss Chinatown USA Pageant sponsored by the San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce crowned Steffi Hu from Sugar Land, TX as this year’s Miss Chinatown USA 2012 on February 4th. The Miss Chinatown USA Pageant put on it’s 55th pageant at the Palace of Fine Arts and this lunar year marks the Year of the Dragon. The pageant theme for this year was Imperial Splendor - Promising Dreams. The ladies were judged based on four categories: Introduction and Poise, Fitness and Form, Talent, and Question and Answer.

The program highlighted the many talents that contestants from around the country had to offer. Contestants came from near and far to participate in this pageant, from as far west as Hawaii and as far east as New York. The Queen will receive a $10,000 scholorship in honor of winning the prestigous title and will be making several appearances in the community and throughout the week with her court and the rest of the contestants until the Chinese New Year Parade that will round out the week. During the parade, all of the beautiful contestants will be on parade floats waving to the crowds and hopefully will be able to inspire other young women to become representatives of their community.

The results of the program are as follows:

• Miss Chinatown USA 2012 / Steffi Hu / Sugar Land, TX
• Miss Chinese Chamber of Commerce/First Princess / Amanda Lee / San Francisco, CA
• Miss San Francisco Chinatown / Snow Feng / Fremont, CA
• Second Princess / Jenny Chin / San Francisco, CA
• Third Princess / Elizabeth Leong / San Mateo, CA
• Fourth Princess / Si Liang / Flushing, NY
• Miss Talent / Steffi Hu / Sugar Land, TX

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The Miss National Asia Pageant is an national Asian pageant that is held locally in San Francisco. The pageant is in it’s fifth year and was held at the San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts Theatre. The show consisted of four segments: Ethnic Costume, Swimsuit, Evening Gown (Question and Answer portion + Platform Speech); there was also an optional talent segment with four contestants competing for the title of Miss Talent.

The pageant results are as listed below:

Miss National Asia: Michelle Nguyen

First Princess: Mari Saleh

Second Princess: Phan Nguyen

Third Princess: Ashley Yu

Miss California Asia: Mari Saleh

Miss Talent: Phan Nguyen

Miss Charity: Michelle Nguyen

Miss People’s Choice: Michelle Nguyen

Other Contestants: Bianca Doria, Selena Du, Jana Hsu, Leena Nguyen, Grace Shao

Pictures of the Miss National Asia Pageant can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

One of the hottest funk bands to ever perform at the Fillmore Jazz Festival has taken the stage at the legendary Boom Boom Room located on Geary Blvd. and Fillmore St. This awesome funk band originates from North Carolina and brings to California some of the most upbeat music of our days. The band first started out from a group of friends and originally named the group Audioform, however, due to the growth of the band by adding additional members the group comprised of 8 members and thus the band known as Groove8 was born.

Although the group is still in its infancy, the group has a lot of promise and the turn out to hear them play is always amazing to see. This year they street performed in front of Marcus Books (one of America’s oldest all Black bookstore) and will later play on July 4th at the Jazz Heritage Center located at Eddy and Fillmore Streets.

The band perform locally on the East Coast, but when the Fillmore Jazz Festival rolls around all 8 members get together and take a short tour out here on the West Coast. If you haven’t heard of them please check them out. They are a funk groove band waiting to be discovered and signed by a major record label. There website can be found at www.groove8.com

Pictures of their performance can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

This year Radio Alice did not fail to put on a good show. It was anything, but dull. Summerthing has to be one of summer’s best free concert open to the public. Again the show was held at Speedway Meadows in Golden Gate Park and the featured performers were Thriving Ivory, One eskimO, Kris Allen, and Lifehouse.

The weather this year was amazingly sunny and the crowd sure packed the space well. Vendors lined the sides of the venue as well as the far back space behind the audience. People came early to camp out good spots for great views and the crowd sure packed it in at the front of the stage.

Great times at the park with great music and tons of blown bubbles throughout the air made for such a great time to have a picnic and time to relax in the sun.

Pictures of the Alice Summerthing can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

The Haight Ashbury Street Fair is a San Francisco fair that promotes love, not war. It is one that brings back nostalgic memories for those that grew up during the 60s and 70s when Flower Power and spiritual freedom reigned supreme. Although, the fair promotes this much differently than how they did almost half a century ago, there are still a few people present at the festival that are there to talk and educate you about how the way things were and some there that are unable to change and are living according to the way of life back in the day. Some of their ideologies are still promoted, but protesting is done in a more calmer way with signing of petitions.

The fair is held for one day and extends from Stanyan Street to Masonic Blvd. Two main stages are on opposite ends of the fair. The main type of music that is performed at this fair is mostly rock; however, there are a few exceptions to this. Almost in the middle of the fair is a smaller stage where other bands and groups play in the kid’s zone. In addition to these official stages, there are a few other musicians throughout the fair that perform in random corners or public spaces. Some of the musicians that freelance on the streets played Jazz, Rock, and Peruvian music.

Similar to the Union Street Festival, the Haight Ashbury Street Fair has similar types of food. Most vendors from the previous weeks festival were also there for this festival and pretty much show up to other various festivals throughout the San Francisco festival circuit.

In contrast to the Union Street Festival, the Haight Ashbury Street Fair (HASF) brings about a different vibe and culture. The fair of Love, Joy, and Peace is one that seems to promote a bit more liberalism out of all festivals throughout San Francisco. For example the air is filled with abundant smells of marijuana, the homeless population populate the streets, a few people with petitions to sign are scattered throughout, the sale of “special” treats and glass pipes are available, and various types of fortune reading and spiritual freedom representatives are present as well.

If Rock music, tie-dyed shirts, spiritual freedom, and a festival that you just want a sense of relaxation and letting loose, then the HASF is the place to be. To some, the fair can be seen as extreme, but it is part of American culture and for those that want to see just a little taste of what things were like back in the mid to late 20th century then coming to the HASF will help enlighten some people.

Pictures of the HASF can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.