What’s Going On?

Tonight, I had the opportunity to see a friend’s improv comedy group perform in front of a crowd of about 50+ people. The venue for this comedy improv show had taken place at The Parlor Room in SF at Sutter and Powell. There were three improv groups and two stand-up comedians that performed. Tonight’s line up were Rumor Has It Improv Troupe, Dave Thomason, Thursprov, Stephen Kalmakis, and hoboFish.

The night started off with a pulling of audience suggestions and random sketches. This comedy group is based out of Concord, CA and consists of seven members. Throughout their improv comedy I was a bit lost and couldn’t find how the audience suggestions were incorporated with their material. I felt that a lot of the suggested topics word just word dropped into the delivery and I felt that most of the audience was lost and confused.

Then Dave Thomason did a quick stand-up. Very funny guy, however, one thing I remember well is that he forgot a couple of liners during the middle of his performance and had to rely on his hand for notes. He played it off very well though and made the audience not think twice about it.

Following Thomason was Thursprov. Thursprov had seven members and were pretty entertaining. A few sketches had me on the edge of my seat laughing with the special technique that involves using your left hand. I can’t remember what the full term was called, but it was coined from one of the comedian’s last name. Given the chance I’d probably want to watch them again.

Dave Thomason came on soon after a short intermission. Thomason who is half Irish and half Greek comedian used slides for his act. He used his ethnicity to make fun of himself and I thought that it was in some ways funny, but it wasn’t one of those jokes that you can recall later on. He forgot some of his lines and at times a little bit awkward, but like any good comedian you move on to something else. I think his ideas were somewhat clever, but his delivery needed some improvement.

Lastly, ending the night was hoboFish, it was the group that I’ve been waiting for all night. My friend joined the group about five months ago and performed that night with three guys along side with their director who also performed with them that night. In total five of them just killed the audience. Much of their performance was so random, but the randomness was what made it hilarious. Couple scenes that I loved were a car scene that involved needing a GPS, a backyard peeping scene, and an iceberg scene which probably was the most random scene of all. The one thing I think that would make this group even more entertaining is if they involved more suggestions from the audience and props sketch. Overall, hoboFish kept me well entertained and I can’t wait to check out some more of their stuff in the future.

In memoriam, I would like to thank all the men and women who are in the armed forces that fight and who have fought, who risk their lives and to those who gave up their lives to give us the freedom that I and all Americans can enjoy to this day. I feel that all soldiers need to be given more respect for being such heroic people. Thank you so much and America salutes you all.

Today ends the two day festival celebration of Carnaval San Francisco 2009. It was a pretty amazing celebration that involves many if not all countries south of the U.S. in the western hemisphere. The festival that kicked off Carnaval extended from 16th St and Harrison to 22nd St. and Harrison. Street artists, food vendors, merchandise vendors, and people filled the streets with two main stages at both ends of the festival grounds.

Saturday, was a bit gloomy and the turn out was good, but not extremely overcrowded. The sun had not made an appearance this week as opposed to last week’s Asian Heritage Celebration and the Bay to Breakers. Food vendors at this venue were spotted in three areas conveniently located so that by the time you finished listening to the bands or finished shopping for merchandise there was food to satisfy your cravings. Unlike, most festivals in San Francisco, the Carnaval celebration had many ethnic foods of the Mexican/Latin American/South American countries.

The highlight of Saturday’s festival was special musical guest Eddie Santiago, who is a very famous salsa singer. I watched him for quite sometime and he was very good. He got the crowd going and there were many that started dancing in the streets. It was pretty awesome. Watching people salsa made me want to pick up lessons once again. I kind of miss dancing to Latin/South American music, or in other words, “musica.”

Sunday, probably why most people come to the Carnaval festivities is for the large Carnaval Parade. The parade started at about 10am. I don’t recall when the parade ended, but I”m pretty sure that it was a little over 3 hours. This year marked my first experience ever at the Carnaval Parade and I must say that I really enjoyed it. I got to Mission St at about 9am and I found parking right on 18th St and Mission, just 4 meters back from the corner. The most awesome thing is that Sunday there is free parking and the whole day I did not have to worry about getting a ticket. I walked down the street to find a good spot and settled at the middle of the block between 19th and 20th Sts. As you may not know this is probably the best spot to be at. There is a BART train station at 16th and one at 24th St. Where I was camped out, I was smack dab in the middle of large crowds and the whole parade experience was amazing without anyone to shove or bump into you from behind. I met this nice lady and she kept me company and vise versa for a pretty solid hour.

When the parade started, it was just non-stop action with lively dancing and music. There were so many different countries represented that if I were quizzed on which countries were present, I would fail. Float after float, the dancers lined the streets with cultural costumes that were just spectacular. Some parade groups tried to pump up the crowd to get them involved in the whole spirit of things and some tossed out beads and candy. One thing that made me most happy was to give this little boy this bouncy ball that I caught from one of the parade marchers. His face lit up and he said, “thank you.” Just that kind gesture sure made my day. It would continue to be a great day by just meeting people all over the place just simply by taking pictures of them. Next year, I plan on being in the midst of the crowds. I feel like I missed a little something this year and I would say probably the lively energy. It’s something about being surrounded by thousands of people make your whole experience different and that I would like to try.

After the parade, I headed back to the festival grounds where there was massive amounts of people, so much more than Saturday, but that’s mainly due to the parade attendees. The sun made a brief appearance and it was great. Music there was just as good as the day before and checking out costumes up close and personal was a sure treat. I ended the day at Carnaval with my feet almost wanting to fall off. I had endured about 6-7 hours of standing and they were killing me. I was smart though this parade because I made sure to bring a seat to sit on. Always be prepared is what I know tell myself before going to any parade that involves time waiting. Anyhow, next year I hope the sun comes out and I get the chance to taste all the foods at many of the stands. Great festival to bring the whole family.

Wow, by far this week has been the most exhausting week ever. I’ve had so much fun photographing four wonderful women that I forgot I was photographing them. Capturing photos can be seen as a crazy job, but lately I’ve seen it as a good time to get to know the person that you are with. I mean in all seriousness, business is business, but when you can insert a little pleasure while doing it, that makes all the difference.

So lately, been getting few hours of rest and the Memorial Day weekend is upon us. I didn’t know that the weekend was going to come so quick. Plans for the weekend. None. I think I might try to get some “Me” time. One thing I know for sure is that I need to hurry up and plan my trip out to the Midwest soon. O where does all the time go?

Tonight, I had the opportunity to help out with some volunteers at the San Francisco Food Bank.  Located in Potrero Hill, the food bank is housed inside of a very nice contemporary warehouse where canned, dry food, fresh produce, and frozen foods are stored. According to the food bank about 133,000 people are fed through various programs throughout the city. Mostly funded through contributions from corporations, the food bank also takes public and private donations as well.

Having been a volunteer before at the food bank, I was eager to see what type of work the full-time employees had for us to do this time around. The last time I was here I remember having to sift through boxes and boxes of peaches. Peaches were donated to the food bank and the volunteer’s job was to screen the peaches and make sure that the bruised, moldy, and often deformed fruit get tossed away, while the good peaches got repacked into “good to eat” boxes.

This time around we were given instruction on packaging Chinese pasta. The task at hand was to open up bulk boxes of pasta and individually package 1lb sealed bags and label them. Each workstation had a limit of seven people. What worked most efficiently was to have two people package the pasta, two people to weigh the pasta and audit if more or less pasta needed to be added or taken away from the bags, two people to help seal the bags, and one person to label and repack the bags into a box of 30 packages.

Given two hours as a whole, we were able to get a pallet packed and loaded and ready to be shipped. According to the food bank employees we had packed 2,250lbs of pasta, which was also equivalent to 11 tons+, but according to my math from high school one ton = 2,000 lbs. However, being a geek that I am, I just now am looking up on google what the measure equivalent is: 2,000lbs = one short ton; 2,240lbs = one long ton. No matter how I look at it, I still don’t know how the employee came up with 11 tons, it didn’t make sense. Nonetheless, we accomplished a task and it was a lot of fun. I felt like a robot throughout the whole experience, but I had a sense of pride that I was able to help as much as I could in helping provide thousands of people with food that can be consumed in hard economic times.

If you are interested in helping the food bank, there are many opportunities that you can be a part of. Volunteer days are seven days a week during the daytime and evenings are Tuesday through Thursday only. Specific times to volunteer is located on their web-page. Bring a group if you can, they can accommodate groups of up to 80 people. If you cannot bring a group, you can come individually as well. Being able to volunteer at the San Francisco Food Bank is just a wonderful experience and I encourage you all to take part in giving back to the community and help and serve those that need us.

Today marked the 98th annual Bay to Breakers Run. In length, the run is a little over 7 miles long and the course goes through some ups and downs along the course. The race starts from the San Francisco Bay and continues through SF until it reaches the Pacific Ocean (breakers). Race time begins at 8am with runners this year lining up in seperate corrals. Each corral was divided into how fast a runner can finish the race. The fastest runners in one corral, the fast in another, medium in another, and walkers in another.

The most fun of the Bay to Breakers (B2B) is the cool costumes that people can cleverly come up with. I always try to make it an effort every year to wake up early and head down to get a glimpse of the race. Costumes sometimes are way to funny that it’s like getting a comedy show coming to you. The only flip side of the race that I don’t like is the nude runners. Majority of the runners that run nude are old folks that just like to let it all hang out. Sometimes I just get really disturbed that I have to look away and or clinch my eyes really tight hoping that they walk or run past me quick.

This year was probably one of the hottest B2B that I’ve been to. I picked up a pretty bad sunburn and went home with my face all red. Couple of friends asked me later that day what happened to me. Personally when I looked in the mirror it looked like I had the Asian glow going on. My face was pure red and it wasn’t looking good. I just hope in the next several days that it won’t hurt like a train hit my face.

For future reference, I need to remember to bring a large hat that covers my head 360 degrees and to bring lots and lots of liquids. Can’t wait for next year!!!

Today I took a day out in the sun for some fun. I headed out the door from home to check out the festival at about 10:00am and got there about 10:30am. I lucked out and found all day parking and just walked four blocks. I know you’re probably saying, why don’t I take public transit, well to be honest, sometimes I’m just lazy and yes I did want to take public transit, but at the same time I brought two cameras with me and I didn’t want to hassle with the bulk of my stuff on the bus.

When I got to the fair it was already pretty packed with hundreds, if not thousands of people. The fair didn’t even start until 11am. I had on my pair of tennis shoes and I walked back and forth up and down Larkin St. from Eddy St. all the way down to Fulton St. By the time, I left the festival I could barely walk any more.

So what did I see? I saw lots of things at the festival. I saw music bands, company sponsors booths, gift vendors, food vendors, a little mini carnival, martial arts demonstrations, people dressed up in their native/cultural wardrobe, and last, but not least there was this awesome muay thai kick boxing exhibition bouts.

A majority of my time was spent watching muay thai. I’ve never seen a live match and it was purely adrenaline rushing. There were a couple rules that they had for the exhibition matches. There were two two minute rounds. There was to be no blows to the head on the first round, but in the second round anything goes. Lastly, there was no body slamming, but sweeps of the feet and take downs were okay. Several fighters got kicked in their balls and what the trainer/ref told fighters to do if they got hit in their junk was to jump up and down hard on their heels. Apparently, that knocks your balls back into place so I hear.

By the time I left the festival I was dead beat. I didn’t feel like doing anything. However, I saw Cherry Dr. Pepper being given out and I asked for two 8-packs (one diet/one regular). Let me tell you, it was a long four blocks back to my car with a case in each hand with my cameras slinged across my neck and back.

All in all, I had a great time. I’m glad that I went and I don’t regret anything. Highlights at the festival were mainly seeing friends and muay thai. Hopefully, next year I’ll get a chance to do more relaxing and listening to bands play. Oh yea, I should have brought a folding chair too.

Last night, my friend invited me to help make some Chinese tamales, otherwise known as “doong” or “joong” depending on dialect. What is a Chinese tamale? Well in short terms it is a food that is made up of short grain (gluttonous rice), meat, and whatever else you would like to add to it, all wrapped in banana/bamboo/lotus leaves and tied up with string. It is then boiled or steamed for about 1.5 hours.

How we went about making the tamales was first to boil and soak the banana leaves  for about 20 minutes to soften up the leaf good enough so that they can become soft and pliable in the wrapping process. Then by grabbing two leaves, we filled up the leaves with two or three tablespoons full of uncooked gluttonous rice which had been seasoned and we placed on top of it marinated pork and Chinese sausage. On top of the meat, we then covered it with about another two to three tablespoons of rice, just enough to have the meat entirely covered. Finally we folded in the sides of the leaf and wrapped the whole entire tamale with the remaining excess part of the banana leaf and tied it all together with some string. We boiled the Chinese tamales for about 1.5 hours and after cooking set them out to cool off.

In totality, I think we made about 60 or so Chinese tamales. They were just great. Excess tamales that could not be eaten will be stored in the freezer where at a later date they can be reboiled and then eaten. My favorite thing to do with “doong” is to cut it up in to half an inch slices and pan fry them in some oil. Pan frying it will allow the outside to become crispy and crunchy while the inside still remains soft and chewy. Great comfort food and I’m glad that after so many years of wanting to make it, I’ve had the opportunity to actually get it done. I now hope to do this again and put some crazy amount of ingredients in my “doong” the next time I make it.

Tonight, I went to my first game of the 2009 season at AT&T Park. The Giants were facing the Nationals with an attendance of about 24,000 people. The night started off with a celebration of Indian heritage night, where two dance groups performed some cultural dances from India. The rest of the week will feature other Asian ethnicities and their cultures. Tonight’s pitcher for the Giants was Randy Johnson and he led the Giants to a victory of 11-7. This win brings Johnson with 298 career victories one step closer to achieving his 300th career win. It would be a total awesome thing to see him pull it off here in SF as a Giant. I hope this season will bring the Giants to the World Series. Lots of potential, now let’s see what the orange and black can do!!!

Last night a couple of buddies and myself went out for some good eats out in the Tenderloin. We then headed over to KFOG’s KaBoom for their annual concert and fireworks event. Trying to find parking in SF while there’s a concert is just chaos. Everyone drives really slow looking for the next spot to open up. After 30 mins or so of driving in circles, we decided to finally park 5 blocks away and just walk. Luckily, we were at the right place at the right time when a chartered Lincoln Towncar limo pulled out. Took a nice stroll to the pier and found a great spot to capture some probably San Francisco’s greatest fireworks display all year. What I mean is that this display of fireworks out beats that of New Years Eve, the 4th of July, and any sporting event fireworks by far. The tradition of watching these fireworks have been going on for several years and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. It is a highly recommended event and just a great event to bring friends and family out.

Mother’s Day this year was a little bit low key. My sister and I took my mom to Taishan Cafe for some good rice claypots. My mom had an awesome time enjoying the great food and just the whole momentous occassion since, as a family, we don’t eat together all that often.  Overall, today has just been a great day and I hope that people all over are able to appreciate their moms and just taking them out for a meal or giving them a call saying how much you appreciate them is all it takes to make them feel loved. So if you haven’t done so, I encourage you to write a letter, write an email, take her out for a meal or just call her to say how much you love her.