Posts filed under 'Events'
Well, Spring Break for geeks is almost here, and I’ll be heading to South by Southwest Interactive (SxSWi) for my third year in a row, and that’s coming up at the end of this week. I’m currently very busy and running around nuts, trying to prepare for the annual trip out.
It’ll be my second time on a panel at SxSWi and this time the hijinx include MJ, Andrew, Tony, Nick, Lynne d Johnson (whom I’ve never met, but I’m looking forward to it), and of course, Tantek (oh yeah right, like I don’t see him everyday). We’ll be kicking-off your week in Austin in a big way, so be sure to come by. I am really good at pre-gaming, by the way, so you know I’m gonna bring it in a big way. (You best believe it!)
Different this year is the fact that I’ll be holding down a slot at the wonderfully creative SXSW tradition of 20×2, where I’ll be attempting to answer the question “What If?” (Not that I don’t ask this question of myself all the time, mind you.) It will be challenging in the fact that I have only two minutes to answer the question.
One thing’s for sure — If it’s one thing SXSW isn’t short on, it’s creativity and inspiration in every corner.
Uh, and Shiner Bock.
March 5th, 2007
I should have posted this much earlier (and it’s probably on purpose), but I’m going to be playing at Ireland’s 32 tomorrow night at like, 9:30PM or so — guitar and singing and all. I haven’t played out since I left New York mainly because I haven’t been practicing as much as I’d have liked to in the past couple of years. But I guess it’s always the same story with me and playing music — when I have to muster the stones to play and belt out really personal lyrics (and songs that I wrote from other points in my life that don’t necessarily reflect what I feel anymore), I become incredibly self-conscious.
Regardless, if you do stop by, I will buy you a pint to make it worthwhile. And you can heckle me, because you know that I’d do the same to you.
Thanks to my New York sistuh Sam for forcefully asking me to kill some time before she makes it to the bar at 10:30PM; I hope I don’t chicken out at the last minute. Also rumored to play: The phenomenal George Kelly, folks. So get your butt on down there tomorrow night — in the meantime, I hope I don’t vomit on my shoes from all the anxiety I feel.
October 15th, 2006
On Tuesday here in lovely San Francisco, APAture festival kicks off at 6pm at Space 180. APAture, a long-running multidisciplinary arts produced by Kearny Street Workshop now in its’ 8th year, showcases the various works of 100+ Asian Pacific American artists that either live or work in the San Francisco Bay Area. It “includes a visual arts show, film screenings, workshops, literary readings, performances in spoken word, music, dance, theater, and other performance genres, and an area for zinesters and comic artists to display and sell their work.”
Particularly of note this year are the participation of eight Mission District venues to showcase works, as opposed to previous years’ one. Yours truly will be on-hand to emcee the literary arts/spoken word and music events held on Tuesday the 26th with filmmaker, Bantercut bassist, buddy, and fellow Filipino Jim Espinas. In addition, I’ll be co-mastress of closing ceremonies on Saturday the 30th with neighbor, wacky gal pal, and fellow APA female blogger MJ Kim.
And lastly, in addition to all that — APAture’s organizer, Samantha Chanse — is sitting here in my living room right now. So if you’d like a brush of greatness, be sure to thank her if you do make it out to an event and enjoy it. (And she didn’t put a gun to my head to write this; I totally started it before she got here.)
September 18th, 2006
A week from now, I’ll be at South by Southwest. Though this conference and festival had originally gained notoriety through the music industry, it expanded in 1997 to add both film and interactive to its’ 20-year history.
Originally uploaded by Nicole Lee.
I was first able to attend SxSW Interactive last year, and the experience itself didn’t disappoint. Other than a great deal of fun, kickball heckling, and wandering, I was glad to talk with other people that have an enormous amount of passion for what they do — whether it be professionally or personally. This year, I return to Austin, Texas as not an attendee this time, but a panelist.
Facilitated by my friend and neighbor, Sergio Villareal of Slide.com, the panel’s premise centers around web hacks and why veering from web standards in some specific instances may be beneficial. Rounding out the rest of my panel are Google Suggest’s Kevin Gibbs, Chief Greasemonkey Aaron Boodman, and Slide.com designer Johnnie Manzari. Says the panel’s synopsis:
Standards are not the end-all be-all of web methodologies. For years, people have been hacking together ugly, daunting, proprietary, but perfectly functional code. Hear the reasons and learn the tricks from the renegade side of the fence.
I suppose, in part, my qualifier would be talking about the “baby” I gave up for adoption years ago. And here I thought I would never have to talk about that again.
Oh well.
To the non-technical and more creative end, you’re probably wondering why there’s a photo of me and Flavor Flav up there. Well, the first time I ever flew back from Austin, Texas (which wasn’t last year, it was in 1999 or so), I ran into Flavor Flav. I told that story at Fray Cafe Austin 5 last year. At the recent suggestion of Eric Rice, the emcee of his fine event during SxSW, I think I’ll stop in and tell a tale again this year. However, I’m not sure what that story will be quite yet. Hopefully it will be as entertaining as the Flavor Flav story.
Hopefully.
Lastly, a Public Service Announcement: If you are going to SxSW and want to figure out where everyone is, now might be the time where you should consider getting a Dodgeball.com account if you text message on your cellphone. It’s better than calling everyone or text messaging everyone every five minutes, going, “Where you be at?” (Gosh, if it were only as popular last year at SxSW! That would have been quite convenient.)
My Dodgeball profile’s here. Add me and text bomb the crap outta me — that’s what it’s for. Although, I think that whole server may crash during that weekend like we all crashed Flickr last year, but what the heck.
Anyway, on a completely unrelated note (but not completely, I suppose), here’s a funny shot that I liked from the Adaptive Path 5th Anniversary Party last night:
Originally uploaded by solsken.
Rock.
March 3rd, 2006
In reference to the previous post of me dancing backup at the Miss Trannyshack pageant, COCO CANAL IS MISS TRANNYSHACK 2005!!! That means that we won!!!
So that was me dancing backup to Christina Aguilera’s “Dirrty.” I think I exposed more flesh than I ever have during a public performance than I would ever like to again. I feel so… silly.
That being said, honestly, there were so many great acts that I was witness to that I started to get really psyched out. I mean, when someone comes out with stiltwalkers with fire torches and all and is suspended in mid-air, swinging by their bare flesh next to a large burning bramble, and goes through two very elaborate wardrobe changes, you begin to wonder what kind of chance you exactly have and if you actually have one. I mean, who wants to follow something like that up? I’m actually kind of shocked.
So what does this mean for me? Welp, absolutely nothing, BUT! What it means for Coco Canal is that she gets to go to London and perform as Miss Trannyshack and all, and host Trannyshack every week when she’s not off on all sorts of Miss America-like activities and things.
It was really great to be part of something so fun. I didn’t expect a lot out of it, but really, the win was the icing on the cake. That type of stuff is just the best feeling… giving it your best but not really expecting it to go anywhere, only to be pleasantly surprised with the results.
I have to make a mental note to do these types of things much more often. They lead me in odd directions, but always with surprising and happy results.
You know what was really cool? Meeting the chick that played Joan of Arc in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
Just kidding. Yes, that was Jane Wiedlin, and I just said hi to her for a split second, then turned all shy and stupid and went on my merry way.
November 20th, 2005
For a little over two weeks, I’ve been rehearsing a modern dance number for the Miss Trannyshack Pageant. Not that I’m in the pageant (though that really would be something), but I’m dancing backup for one of the fly drag queens competing for the crown this year.
Boy, will that be something. (No puns intended.)
The pageant is in its’ 10th year and has been sold out each year it has been in existence. If you’re in SF on Saturday night, it’s worth a definite look as I believe 10,000 people will be there. It’ll cost 30 wavos at the door at The Regency Grand Ballroom (1300 Van Ness @ Sutter)… ahead of time, it’s $20 with fees (go here for more information on how to get tickets before the show) and it starts at 8:30PM.
Yeah, these shoes don’t look the most comfortable, do they. That’s a 4-inch stiletto on the left, and a 5-inch platform on the right. Whichever I pick, I’m going to dance a whole four to five strenous minutes… hopefully without busting my face open.
I’m pretty sure that since this is a pageant, I’m not supposed to say anything before the event about which drag queen contestant I’m dancing backup for, how many people are in the act, or what song we are doing — anything like that. What I will say, however, is that it felt really good to be doing something other than staring at a monitor or drinking beer (or both), which was one of the reasons I agreed to do it in the first place. The second was really — well… I was fortunate enough to be offered the opportunity to move from New York two years ago, and it would be just awful to not experience something like this, especially as a performer.
I’m really going to go all out tomorrow night, and you probably won’t believe what I’m doing (because it’s really in contrast to the way I “normally” am). I’ve worked really hard, but everyone else in the number, admittedly is probably going to put in WAY more than me. It’s going to be fun for not only me, but I’m sure the show is going to be amazing for all who watch too.
I hope to see you there!
November 18th, 2005
So blogged. I had a lot of fun. I was so amazingly glad to be a part of that. I felt sort of silly be up there and everything. I mean, when I get put into those situations, I really crave hiding behind a monitor sometimes when I’m spilling my guts. That, and I also get really self-conscious and freaked out and everything.
After talking with some people after the event, I realize that some people may think the “cliff-hanger” in that Burning Man piece was intentional, when in fact it wasn’t. I really honestly had been sorting a ream of paper at the top of the event and forgot that page completely. So, I’ll point you to the pieces I did tonight, and you can read them to completion as I realize they’re a bit long. (And sorry for blowing past the time limit — thank you for being so patient! I’m a bit verbose. OK, a lot. That tends to happen with me.)
Here were the probable pieces:
- “A League of Their Own / A League of Our Own” (on Asian-ness, discrimination), appears in Agendacide: Minutes, July 18th 2002.
- “In The Ghetto” (uses the f-bomb a lot) appears in Agendacide: Minutes, April 19th 2002.
- “Disorder: Day Three of My New Life” (a poem about how two people just can’t get it together) appears in Agendacide: Minutes, March 16th 2002.
- “To Eric, From JFK” (prose about where home is) appears in Agendacide: Minutes, April 23rd 1999.
- “Girls vs. Boys: Girls” (dead-up, zero bullshit advice for a real guy from a real girl) appears in Negative Waves Issue #104.
- This last one link is for fellow performer Annie Lin, whom I had the pleasure of meeting over drinks and brownies after the event. We had talked about Williamsburg, “East-Williamsburg-let’s-be-honest, it’s-not-really-East-Williamsburg-now-is-it” Brooklyn, and guitar idolettes quite a bit. “I have a meeting at happyhour.com”, which appears at Agendacide: Minutes, July 15th 2003, is about the L-Train in New York, where she recently moved to. (So all you New York kids reading this be nice and say hi; go to her site now and download some MP3 clips or something).
And if you sent me your birthday? No really. If you didn’t get a beatdown tonight, instead, on your birthday… you’ll get a surprise for your trouble. I have an awesome memory and I’ll totally remember your birthday and send you a surprise. I’m good like that.
Thanks to Locus Arts (Sam, Jane, Carolyn) for putting on the event, and to MJ for inviting me out. Thanks to you if you made it out — what a great turnout for an APA event. You guys kick major ass.
October 21st, 2005
On Thursday night, I’ll be at Lap-POP! — an event put on by Locus Arts, which is an amazing Asian American Arts organization based here in the Bay area. Curated by Min Jung Kim, Lap-POP! promises to be a geekgasmagorical (credit to Charleen) extravaganza with an array of Asian American artists.
OK now, that’s all the hype I can generate, but I promise it won’t be your average geeky-ass blogger event. The reason I say this is because we’re going to be happily focusing on more creative and artistic endeavors this time (thank freakin’ God) and we get to stop talking about monetizing and paradigm shifts for a hot minute.
Allow me to illustrate how fun this event will hopefully be with two of my fellow performers:
Here is a picture of Ernie and I at South by Southwest this past year, bumping booties to some Nelly jam or something. He is the only person I know that gets references to obscure “Afro-pop” groups like Kwame. People really, really like this picture of me and Ernie. And although this is one of many goofy pictures I have taken with Ernie, I am actually really surprised they do not appear in their own Flickr cluster.
If more than 30 people we know show up, Ernie and I will do the “Rollin’ with Kid n’ Play” kickstep for you all, and that will be the interactive portion of both of our writing sets.
A long time ago in a galaxy just across the way, I’d told a bunch of our friends about how the Ewoks were confirmed as speaking Filipino after years of wondering after college. Based upon a conversation I’d had with my besterest friend in the galaxy, Dac, a couple of months back, we weirdly decided the Ewoks were Filipino. Then I met Courtney, another Filipino sistah with an identical mole on her face — and those moles were dubbed as our matching “Moons of Endor.”
It looks like I ripped a fart in that picture and laughed my ass off while Courtney covered her mouth and nose. That’s probably not the case, but that’s what it looks like in retrospect. Regardless — Courtney will wow you with her photographs, and you should be around for that, so please come out and show your support not only for the blogging community, but the arts community and the asian arts community as well!
Speaking of Ewoks, for your amusement — my latest cameo appearance in the blogosphere has entailed a brief stint as the Ewok Princess Kneesaa bringin’ the LiveJournal drama on Wicket Warrick on the not-so-surprisingly-well-written, Ewok-powered, Star Wars Battlefront II blog.
Let me assure you that neither Ernie, Courtney, nor I look very Ewok-like IRL so, you’d have to come on out to Lap-POP! to see for yourself. We’d love to see you there.
Lap-POP! graphic by Amy Lam of Mobile Republic.
October 17th, 2005
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