What’s Going On?

The 6th Annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration filled Larkin St. from Civic Center all the way up to Little Saigon. The street festival started with some cold gloomy weather, but heated up by mid-afternoon. Early Asian festivities started with the Faces of Asia parade. The parade started at the Asian Art Museum and went through the festival all the way to the top of the festival at Eddy Street and back down to the Cultural and Jazz Stage.

Featured entertainers of the festival were the West Coast Lion Dance Troupe, Frances Ancheta Becker, Kapakahi, Native Elements, Trackademics, Kat o1o (Crown City Rockers), Far East Movement, The CounterParts, Curt Yagi, Kazha, akai Sky, Chung Ngai Dance Troupe, Argonne Elementary School, Purple Orchids, ASEAN Corner, Chardi Jawani Stanford Bhangra, Gen Taiko, AHSC Best Dance Crew Contest (hosted by WILD 94.9), SF Pinoy Jazz Revnue, Balut Eating Contest, YoYoJoe, Planet Infinity’s More Than Medals Taekwondo Team, Unity Tuy Ngoc Nguyen, and Animemyu.

One thing that this street celebration does not lack in and that is entertainment. It is very difficult to catch everything in one day, but if you can pull it off to catch half of it you did a pretty good job. Just the entertainment on the stages alone was a lot, but don’t forget the street celebration itself. The street festival not to mention has vendors that sell arts & crafts, gifts, food, information, a kiddie carnival, they also have sponsors that give out free things and booths that can even teach you how to play mahjong. If that’s not enough, there’s import cars to check out and if that’s not entertaining enough, there’s Muay Thai Kick-boxing going on all day.

For a festival that starts at 10am and lasts till 6pm, it is one that is jam packed with stuff to do and see. It is a lot of fun and every year it seems to get better and better. What will the festival have in store for San Francisco next year? Who knows, come out to find out.

The Asian Pacific American Heritage Awards kicked off the Asian Heritage Month here in San Francisco at the Herbst Theatre in Civic Center. The Awards ceremony first started with classical music by cellist Charles Wang. The evening progressed with the granting of awards to the following from local dignitaries:

For Emerging Leadership: Thomas Li

For Lifetime Achievement: Dr. Edward Chow

For Community Impact: Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center

Throughout the award ceremony three performances took to the stage with a glow stick performance, a Southern Asian dance troupe, and folk dance from a Burmese group. The finale for the awards ceremony was remarkable with community involvement from all parts of Asia, including that of Vietnam, China, Japan, Pacific Islanders, Burma, South Asia, and many others. The finale was very colorful, not to mention very entertaining.

Following the awards ceremony was a time of Asian styled refreshments from local restaurants and sponsors on the second floor of the War Memorial Building. The food was delicious and the attendance was great. Ending off the night with food and mingling, what more can one ask for. Congratulations to all the award winners and thank you to all the sponsors who made this night possible.

Pictures of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Awards 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 First Noodle Festival took to the streets of San Francisco in two neighboring districts, North Beach and Chinatown. Each community creates their own awesome style of noodle on a daily basis, but which noodle reigns supreme of the community from which they are from. The Noodle Fest was brought to you buy the Chinatown Community Development Center and North Beach Merchants Association. Many showed up for this event for its first running and I believe it will not be its last.

The festival was held on Grant Street between the Pacific and Vallejo Streets. On each end of the festival were two great bands. On the Pacific Street Stage was Jest Jammin. A cover-band known for their funk and jazzy hits of the late 70s and 80s. On the Vallejo Street Stage was the MS Collective jazz band.

Throughout the event there were a couple of live demonstrations on how to make two types of noodles/pasta. Chef Shen demonstrated to the audience on how to make Shanghai dumplings, while Chef Carventz demonstrated how to roll out some pasta and make ravioli. Both demonstrations were pretty interesting.

The food at the festival was a hit with samplings from six vendors for $15 pre-ordered or $20 at the fest. Many vendors at the festival did not anticipate the high volume of supporters and thus did not have enough pasta to distribute to paying consumers. Nonetheless, I can tell by the all the faces that everyone was pleased by the great food and fun that they had. Perhaps next year, the festival will grow in size and more demonstrations will be featured on perhaps how to cook certain dishes. Until next year, we will see what happens. If the festival is put on again, make sure you venture out and tastes what North Beach and Chinatown have to offer.

Pictures of the Noodle Fest 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 US Japan Taiko Festival was held this year at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas located in San Francisco’s Japantown. In the largest theater the taiko drumming groups performed two separate sets, but the finale both groups came together and played.

The show was open to the public and tickets were sold for $30 with a $5 discount towards students and seniors. The program featured Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka & San Francisco Taiko Dojo, SF Taiko Dojo Rising Stars and special guests from Japan were Hoya Wadaiko Kai and Bungo Kurenai Taiko.

The performance was pretty amazing. Synchronized drumming without any flaws is something that is hard to do. Practice makes perfect, one can say. Having two groups perform back to back was truly something special. In my opinion the performance was not long enough, but there’s always other shows and festivals to catch taiko drumming. The performance I believe was a great success because the seats were filled and guests seemed to enjoy the night by basking in the rhythms of taiko.

Having experienced this event for the first time, it is simply amazing. There’s a first for everything and listening to it outside in the streets of San Francisco is one thing, but listening to it inside of a movie theater is totally a new and different experience. If you would like to experience it please come and check it out next year or for upcoming events please check out the SF Taiko Dojo website at www.sftaiko.com

Pictures of the US Japan Taiko Festival  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 Cherry Blossom Grand Parade was held this year on one of the warmest days that San Francisco has had this year thus far. The parade started in the early afternoon and lasted for about two hours. Meanwhile in the morning, there were tons to see and do. I eventually spent most of my time observing a few exhibits at the Hotel Kabuki. There I got to see some pretty awesome exhibits.

There were four main exhibits that were shown on Sunday and they were the origami exhibit, the bonsai tree exhibit, the paper doll exhibit, and the samurai sword exhibit. My favorite of the four was the paper dolls exhibit. Such great craftsmanship had gone into them that I felt like taking one home; however to my dismay, they were not for sale.

The Grand Parade featured a few local schools, local politicians and dignitaries, pageant contestants and queens, taiko drum troopes, other music groups, men and women from our local law enforcement, along with our fire department, and much much more. The finale of the parade was the highlight for most festival goers with two men whom are half naked on top of a sake keg carrying device who are being rocked side to side and men who toss sake into the air. It is said that the more the sake carrying device is rocked from side to side the more fortune it will bring.

Following the parade, the festival still kept going strong with their exhibits, bands hitting the stages once again, food vendors cooking up a storm, performances rocking the stage in Peace Plaza, and the festival finished off with an annual raffle where winners were pulled by the beautiful ladies of the Cherry Blossom Queens Program.

No plans for next year for two of the weekends in April, well make sure you pencil in a day at the Cherry Blossom Festival here in SF. It will not be disappointing, unless it rains of course.

Pictures of the holiday party 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 Cherry Blossom Festival once again never fails to be a fabulous festival and by no means does it get boring year after year. It’s a great Japanese cultural festival traditionally held here in San Francisco’s Japantown. The festival was held for two weekends this year in April and this year the weather was a little unpredictable. The first weekend of the festival it had rained and it really put a damper on attendance.

Although poor weather was present the first weekend, it did not rain on their parade, no pun intended. The second weekend of the festival received great sunny weather. It actually felt like summer in San Francisco for once.

Great things were to be seen at the festival with awesome cultural dances, cultural music, taiko drumming, cultural films, arts and crafts, an origami exhibit, a bonsai tree exhibit, a Japanese paper doll exhibit, a samurai sword exhibit, import cars, live jazz and funk bands, mochi making, great food, and much much more.

Probably the most interesting exhibit at the festival would have to be the Japanese paper doll exhibit. So much time and effort must be put into them that it shows in the final result. The precision that one must have to undergo is just astounding. The paper dolls were very colorful and full of life and you would not have guessed that the clothing would have been made out of folded and cut paper. Pictures of this exhibit and a few other exhibits I mentioned can be found on the link from the next posting.

Great fun and entertainment, the Cherry Blossom Festival is one of the greatest cultural festivals that is held here in San Francisco. If you haven’t checked it be sure to mark it on your calendars for next year because it will be a great time, you can count on that.

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) is the largest Asian American Film Venue in the country. The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) played host for it in San Francisco and this year CAAM celebrates it’s 30th year as an established Asian American organization.

The San Jose opening night feature film, Au Revoir Taipei, written and directed by Arvin Chen, kicked off the film festivities for the festival at the Camera 12 Cinemas. The cast and crew that were present at the screening were filmmaker Arvin Chen, producers In-Ah Lee and Philipp Steffens, behind the scenes videographer John Wu, and actor Lawrence Ko.

The film was a comedic creative piece about a guy who falls in love for this girl that works in a bookstore, the cat and mouse adventures of wannabe gangsters led on by their boss, and the food, scenes, and other sights around the city of Taipei.

After the San Jose opening night film guests walked over to the former San Jose Museum of Modern Art, now just called the San Jose Museum of Art. Filmmakers, actors, and guests came to celebrate the night away with drinks, snacks, music, mingling, dancing, and a stroll through the galleries.

The festival lasted throughout the weekend with screenings on Saturday and Sunday. Many made the festival in San Francisco and San Jose a great success. Next year plan on supporting Asian American media and watch a screening of some amazing pieces. Until next year’s festival, keep posted for other events that the Center for Asian American Media put on throughout the year. More information can be found on their website at www.asianamericanmedia.org

Pictures of the holiday party 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 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) is the largest Asian American Film Venue in the country. The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) played host for it in San Francisco and this year CAAM celebrates it’s 30th year as an established Asian American organization.

The closing night feature film, Au Revoir Taipei, written and directed by Arvin Chen, ended the film festivities for the festival. The cast and crew that were present at the screening were filmmaker Arvin Chen, producers In-Ah Lee and Philipp Steffens, co-producer Michelle Cho, editor Justin Guerrieri, cinematographer Michael Fimognari, and actor Lawrence Ko.

The film was a comedic creative piece about a guy who falls in love for this girl that works in a bookstore, the cat and mouse adventures of wannabe gangsters led on by their boss, and the food, scenes, and other sights around the city of Taipei.

Prior to the screening of Au Revoir Taipei, special awards went out to:

Narrative Competition Best Narrative Feature: DEAR LEMON LIMA, Dir. Suzi Yoonessi

Special Jury Award: THE MOUNTAIN THIEF, Dir. Gerry Balasta

Jury Recognition for Visual Achievement: FOG, Dir. Kit Hui

Best Documentary Feature: WO AI NI MOMMY, Directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal

Following the film guests moved on over to Temple Nightclub to end the festivities here in San Francisco. Filmmakers, actors, and guests came to celebrate the night away with drinks, music, mingling, and dancing.

Pictures of the closing night 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 Center for Asian American Media celebrates it’s 30th anniversary this year with a fabulous gala held at the amazing Fisherman’s Wharf location of the Ana Madera Restaurant. The evening started off with a small welcome and introduction to guests from special celebrity MCs Roger Fan (Fast & The Furious) and Tamlyn Tomita (Joy Luck Club).

Following introductions, delicious food from seven restaurants brought guests mouth watering tastes of Asian Cuisine. The tastes of Asia came from Khai Duong with Ana Mandara, Lawrence C.C. Chu with Chef Chu’s, Dennis Wong with Le Soleil, Jackson Yu with Live Sushi Bar, Peter Chan with South Sea Seafood Village, Hung Le with Three Seasons, and last but not least Jeff Hubbard and Roy Yamaguchi with Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion.

The evening’s special tribute was in honor of filmmaker Loni Ding who was one of few that helped Asians pave the way for Asian American media. Family members of Loni Ding, David Welsh and May Ying Welsh were also honored on behalf of the Center of Asian American Media who were pleased to support the idea of the Loni Ding Award which is honor of her passionate documentary filmmaking that gives voice to underrepresented communities.

Pictures of the gala 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 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) is the largest Asian American Film Venue in the country. The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) played host for it in San Francisco and this year CAAM celebrates it’s 30th year as an established Asian American organization.

This year as in the couple of years back the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas played home to the majority of films that were selected to be played at this year’s festival. Other various venues were the Castro Theatre, Viz Cinema, Japantown Peace Plaza, Landmark Clay Theatre, and the Pacific Film Archive Theater.

With the festival in full swing, guests purchased tickets online or at the theaters. Festival goers who are members of the Center of Asian American Media are given special priority in purchasing tickets about a week before ticket sales are open to the public. A highly encouraged way to make sure you get tickets is to join the organization. More information can be found on their website here.

On location of the theaters guests arrive at least 20 minutes prior to seating to ensure the first come first served policy. People that do not have tickets are encouraged to get to the theater much more in advance and try to buy tickets at the box office or take their chances in the rush line. The rush line is a no guarantee chance at purchasing a seat in the theater. Ticket holders that do not attend the screening basically forfeit their seat and ticket and a guest waiting in the rush line can purchase an open seat if available. Highly stressful to be in such a line because there are no guarantees and one can be standing in line and end up being turned away.

Throughout the festival there were about 108 films shown. Films were rated by patrons to determine the best films of the festival and are also judged by a small select panel of judges for special jury awards in a couple of categories.

The following are the results of the top festival award winners in their respective categories:

Narrative Competition Best Narrative Feature: DEAR LEMON LIMA, Dir. Suzi Yoonessi

Special Jury Award: THE MOUNTAIN THIEF, Dir. Gerry Balasta

Jury Recognition for Visual Achievement: FOG, Dir. Kit Hui

Best Documentary Feature: WO AI NI MOMMY, Directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal

COMCAST AUDIENCE AWARD:

Best Narrative Feature: AU REVOIR TAIPEI, Dir. Arvin Chen

Best Documentary Feature (tie):  IN THE MATTER OF CHA JUNG HEE, Directed by Deann Borshay Liem

and A VILLAGE CALLED VERSAILLES, Directed by S. Leo Chiang