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March 4th – Harry Aoki's First Friday Forum features Sean Gunn and Running Dog Lackeys

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Harry Aoki presents First Friday Forum
7:30pm - 9:30pm
Friday, March 04, 2005
Nikkei Heritage Centre  
Kingsway and Sperling,
Burnaby

Harry Aoki & Guests perform a blend of musical, 
cultural and intellectual fusion and forum.  
The theme is in support of Chinese Canadian Redress. 
Update on the campaign by Sid Tan, representative 
of the Chinese Canadian National Council’s campaign 
for Head Tax redress. 

This March 4th show features The Running Dog Lackeys.  
Expect Sean Gunn to perform and sing his song 
“Head Tax Blues” featured in the Karen Cho film 
“In the Shadow of Gold Mountain.

I think this will be especially poignant, as Harry 
himself was interned during WW2 as a Canadian born 
of Japanese heritage, as his family’s home was 
confiscated and they were shipped out of Vancouver.  
Harry loves ethno-fusion music and how cultures share 
and evolve.  He created an album titled Haida Dawn, and 
was a music coordinator for the Edmonton Commonwealth Games.
  
This concert is suitable for all ages.
Admission is free -  Donations are appreciated.

Is being an ethnic Canadian a 50/50 split? or is being multicultural 100% x ethnicity(s) + 100% Canadian?

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Is being an ethnic Canadian a 50/50 split? or is being multicultural 100% x ethnicity(s) + 100% Canadian?

What percentage do we consider ourselves ethnic? or Canadian? 
This idea presented itself to me while I was sitting on the CRTC
judicial hearing for Planet Radio presented by CHUM.  I was invited to be part of the Planet Radio community advisory committee by Prem Gill, host of ColourTV, a weekly show on CityTV about diversity in culture.

The CRTC vice-chair
was labouring over questions about Planet Radio's proposals of what
percentage of the music programming would be in English or French
language vs non-English or French.  Planet Radio proposed a
minimum of 20% music programming for non-English or French, while 35%
programming would be Canadian.

It is important to address the fact that the panel was 100% visibly
white.  While some CRTC judges may be francophone or part First
Nations, that doesn't necessarily make them appear visibly any less
white.  English is just the official language of Canada, as is
French.  You can be 100% Anglophone, 100% Francophone, and 100%
Canadian – just as Pierre Trudeau was, as his father was
French-Canadian and his mother was Scottish/English Canadian. 
Even CHUM interactive Vice President Roma Khanna and I speak better
French than Hindi or Chinese, that's just how Canadian we are.

Canada's
ethnic population feels the same about our individual
multi-heritage:  There are no rules or definitions how we classify
ourselves such as being 20% Anglophone, 20% French, 10%
aboriginal, or 50% Chinese… unless you are applying to be a Status
Indian.

Ndidi Cascade was also
part of the advisory committee with me.  While her father was
Nigerian and her mother Irish and Italian, she is NOT 50% African, 25%
Celtic, 25% Mediterranean.  She can be 100%
Nigerian-Canadian, 100% Irish-Canadian; 100% Italian-Canadian, which
all adds up to 100% Canadian.  We are truly more than the sum of
our ethnic DNA cells. First Nations musicians singing in their
aboriginal tongue is neither English or French – do we classify them as
“foreign language?”  Canadians born of Asian or African heritage,
sing about their cultural ancestry in English – do we classify them as
non-global, or English language?

We don't live our lives by
saying it is 4pm, time to be Chinese for an hour.  We draw on all
of our life and cultural experiences throughout the day – just like our
musical programming.  Take Robbie Robertson, Angelique Kidu, Les
Nubians, Nelly Furtado, Bebel Gilberto, Tan Dun, Buffy Sainte-Marie,
Curtis Clear Sky and put them in the cd play and just hit “shuffle”.

We are now post-multiculturalism.  30 years ago, there were no
radio stations catering to the Vancouver ethnic immigrant
populations.  CRTC would never have granted an individual licence
to address the Canadian born Chinese population for a Co-op Radio
program like “Pender Guy”
about Chinese Canadian youth issues – but it still played an important
part in the evolution of Chinese Canadian culture.  
Traditional
Multiculturalism wraps every ethnic group up in a little
box and orders it in little pigeon hole stereotypes for easier
understanding.

Asian Canadians are now 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and even 7th generation Canadians like my Chan family descendents.
Many of us are now inter-racially married.  We are
now all part of the mainstream – and yet are still marginalized as
the radio licences are given to new immigrants to address new immigrant
issues.  Our music scene has changed, the technology has changed,
and radio programming must change to meet the concerns of youth and
aboriginal culture and our changing Canadian culture.

Multi-generational
Canadians speak English – so it's harder to find us through ethnic
media and communication channels.  We are the “invisible”
visible-minority.  We are inter-cultural, proud of our ancestry
while sharing the diverse cultures of each other, and also perhaps of
our 4 differently diverse grand parents.  Traditional immigrants
tend to predominately remember the culture as it was when they left
their homeland. This is why the many Chinatowns, Japantowns, Little
Italy's and Little India's all seem to be stuck in time. But cultures
evolve, they change, they morph, they mix, and they integrate. 
That is why the Silk Road in Asia was so important – all the cultures
exchanged information, rather than institute isolationist policies
where you could only speak one language or address one culture at a
time. 

100% English speaking, 100% ethnic Chinese-Canadian, 100% West Coast, 100% global, 100% Canadian – that's me!

Planet Radio – Exploring Vancouver's Global sound – Check out this proposal by CHUM

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Over the past few days I was involved with the Planet Radio proposal by CHUM Radio, applying for a new FM licence before the CRTC.  I had been invited by Prem Gill to be part of their community advisory committee, Prem is host of ColourTV at City TV.

It was a great learning experience on how the CRTC licences radio
applications both for AM and FM.  As well, it was great to meet
all the CHUM and CityTV people who made this proposal come together,
particulary David Goldberg of Much Music in Toronto.

This was
very exciting to think about how a new music radio station could better
reflect the youth/young adult market in Vancouver and really play the
kind of music that I can not only culturally identify with, but a radio
station that can also reflect my diverse music collection with global
and world beat artists.  Check out www.planetradio.ca and you will
find that CHUM is proposing to reinvent Canadian urban radio
formatting.  They propose to concentrate on 35% Canadian content
to feature Canadian artists that no other radio station would touch
except for Co-Op, CBC or some special niche programming slot.

Imagine
hearing Chinese Canadian turntablist Kid Koala, Calgary born Leslie
Feist, or George Leach from the Sta'atl'imx Nation near Lillioet
BC.  These Canadian artists are expressing and contributing to
Canadian culture – but can't crack the tight radio formats of Top 40,
Adult Oriented Rock, Classic Rock, Soft Pop, or Cool Jazz or whatever
that station plays.  Mix this up with Angelique Kidd, Bob Marley,
Nelly Futado, Eryka Badu and you have a very vital music sound that
represents the social folk music of the 21st Century!  Very Cool
indeed.

Does Vancouver need a new radio station that will play
all this great stuff on FM radio?  Does any other radio format
actually understand that Vancouver's population demographics include 4
out of 10 residents were born outside of Canada, or that 37% of our
population is visible minority?  Okay, the CBC does… but CBC
Radio One still struggles with balancing ethnic and cultural
stereotypes, Torontoistic perceptions of Canada while doing its best to
reflect the hearts, minds and souls of Vancouverites – and it does this
mostly through spoken word.  Planet Radio will capture the
soundtrack of Vancouver's youth and young adults, and inclusively
reflect our global heritage as well as our multi-generational and
multi-racial families and histories.

I hope the Planet Radio
proposal goes through and CRTC gives them a chance.  Most of the
other applicants I saw or heard about were proposing Indo-Canadian
ethnic radio.  Do we really need another traditional multicultural
radio station that divides its time slots according to ethnic
groups?  I think not.  We are now into the post-multicultural
phase of our city's evolution, if not our country's.  Let's
recognize where this country is going and who is actually making the
music.  It is intercultural people who can embrace and relate to
all cultures and recognize that to be Canadian, we have to be inclusive
– not exclusive.

http://www.planetradio.ca/

Think Vancouver opens with CBC hosted reception at Vancouver Aquarium

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The Vancouver Aquarium was the perfect site for the 6:00 broadcast of CBC TV's
“Canada Now” with hosts Gloria Macarenko and Ian Hanomansing.  This
kicked off the CBC TV portion of CBC's involvement with the Think Vancouver two week programming highlighting Vancouver's waterfront. I had earlier listened
to CBC Radio's On the Coast host Priya Ramu broadcast live from the
Vancouver Port authority interviewing Vancouver's harbourmaster – one
of the only women harbourmasters in the world!

Opening speeches were emceed by actor Jackson Davies (of
Beachcombers fame), as he introduced Jane Chalmers, CBC Vice President
of English Radio, and CBC Regional Directors of radio and television,
Joan Anderson and Rae Hull. All were very excited about Think
Vancouver's ambitious programming to make Vancouver's waterfront come
alive and to encourage Vancouver's residents to see it through fresh
eyes and ideas.

This was a fantastic party that featured incredible food, and some very
interesting presenters, plus a wonderful collection of guests! It was
very exciting to just see who in CBC's extended community was at this
very dynamic event. Each of the performances was hosted by CBC TV and
Radio hosts. Margaret Gallagher introduced Roger Lee, Gloria Macarenko
introduced the play “Women in Fish” by playwright Marie Clements.

Gloria Macarenko looked so outstanding in her black leather jacket and short
auburn hairdo that I had to ask Rae Hull, how she managed to have
“X-men” actor Famke Jannsen featured for Think Vancouver. Rae joked
that she has a lot of pull. Gloria seemed pleased with the compliment
and we had a nice chat about Gung Haggis Fat Choy, which she plugged
last year on Canada Now to highlight the CBC television performance
special, and for which I sent down some haggis won-tons. Gloria shared
with me that the Canada Now team always celebrates Robbie Burns Day
after the show with a haggis, and a German Canadian who can recite the
Burns “Address to the Haggis” poem. Hmm… maybe we can have Gloria
co-host Gung Haggis Fat Choy for 2006? What kind of Scottish name is
Macarenko? Is it MacArenko?

It was great to see so many people from Vancouver's Asian
communities attending the event; Larry Wong and Jennifer Lau from
Chinese Canadian Historical Society; Jim Wong-Chu, executive director
of Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop; Don Montgomery from ExplorAsian
Festival; Sadhu Binning from the Punjabi Writers' Group; Angela Leung
from Association of BC Book Publishers; plus many other guests
including Christopher Gaze, Cecilia Walters, and many many more.

The evening featured talks and performances by:

Roger Lee: Working on the Waterfront about what it was like to
work Vancouver's wharves in the mid-1900's as a Chinese-Canadian.

Elisa Campbell: Digging for Devlopment an in-depth look at develping Vancouver's busy coastline.


Dr. John Nightingale: Cleaning our Coastline – the president of the
Aquarium addresses what we can do to keep our waterfront clean and
environmentally conscious.

Christos Dikeakos: Injecting Inspiration – exploring the
relationship between Vancouver local artists and the waterfront through
his own work.

Women in Fish: by Marie Clements – a multimedia play about the
capsize of the fishing vessel Loretta B in September 1962. this play
about 18 -year old survivor eileen Lorenz – 8 months pregnant with her
daughter Jaime, survives 6 hours in the freezing water, while the
issues of the dying fishing industry and the rlationships of the women
of Galiano Island within their community and the harvest of the sea are
explored.

Sadhu Binning: Walking on Water: a Poet's Journey – a poet
reveals how the waterfront breaths joy into his life and his poetry.

Reception party for BC Arts Council at Vancouver Museum

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Great places for parties! The Vancouver Museum and the Vancouver Aquarium as BC Arts Council and CBC's Think Vancouver both took place on Monday, February 28th, 2005.

We started at the Museum where BC Premier Gordon Campbell made a big
announcement that will see millions of extra dollars spent on the BC
Arts organizations.  $25 million will help start up the BC Arts
Renaissance Fund to be supervised by the Vancouver Foundation. The fund
will leverage private sector support to build endowments for
arts and culture organizations and support strategic investments that
will assist organizations to develop innovative initiatives that
improve self sufficiency.

I attended with the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra, managed by Deb
Martin – my girlfriend. She introduced me to many of the players in the
Vancouver Arts scene. We saw  Don Shumka – BCAC Chair, George
Laverock of Festival Vancouver, Violet Goosen of the Vancouver Chamber Choir, David Y.H. Louie, Robert Kerr of Coastal Jazz and Blues Society. As well, we saw many friends such as Fred Wah representing Kootenay School of Writing, Donna Spencer and Jessica Scheider from Firehall Arts Centre; Adrienne Wong was there with Camyar Chai of  New World Theatre; Lindy Sissons who showed me her new brochure for the 2005 Vancouver International Children's Festival; Heather O'Hagan now with Craft Association of BC  who had attended Gung Haggis Fat Choy when it was still only 60 or 100 people.


Fred Wah
was our featured poet for Gung Haggis Fat Choy 2005. He told me that
when he was attending the Chinatown Chinese New Year Parade the week
afterwards, Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell came up to him and said he
really liked his performance at GHFC. Wonderful!

Fred also noted how few writers and Asian Canadian Arts
organizations were in attendance at the BC Arts Council reception.
Gordon Campbell, in his speech to all the arts organizations, stated
that Vancouver won the 2010 Olympic bid because of its dymnamic arts
component that featured multicultural artists. Fred shared with me that
since the BC Government is highlighting Vancouver's Asian community and
multicultural arts groups, more Asian Canadian arts groups such as Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop, Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society,
and Gung Haggis Fat Choy should all be represented.  Perhaps we
will have to be more proactive in working with the BC Arts Council to
help promote the Asian Canadian arts organizations.

The most multicultural Academy Awards yet! + Oscar Night at “Starry Night Gala” at the Caprice

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It must have been one of the most multicultural Academy awards yet,
hosted by African-American comedian Chris Rock, and Oscars going to
best actor Jamie Foxx and best supporting actor Morgan Freeman – on the
2nd to last day of Black History Month. The Oscar for best song went to
a foreign language film, and the composer sang some of the lines in
Spanish – beautiful!

Presenters included Mexican and Spanish actors, Salma Hayek and
Penelope Cruz, Chinese actor Ziyi Zhang. Sandra Oh looked fabulous in
her red gown, when her husband won the Oscar for Best Adapted
Screenplay for “Sideways.” Sandra is Korean Canadian and now living in
California and also had a supporting role in “Sideways.”

I watched the Awards show at the Caprice Nightclub, attending the
“Starry Night Gala” beefint for The Vancouver Friends for Life Society.
the Caprice is a former movie house, wonderfully turned into an
intimate upscale night club – the perfect setting for an Oscar party,
hosted by Terry David Mulligan. A large screen was perfect for viewing
from anywhere in the club and seats were set up on the dance floor in
row like a movie house. The best seats were the booths on the floor,
where I later met brand new friends Tim and Barbara, whom I discovered
with we had mutual friends Barb Lee at the Vancouver Asian Film
Festival – Barbara's business card was titled “Eager Student” and is
currently taking the Entertainment managment certifcate course at UBC –
hm…. maybe I should try that too.

My buddy Craig Brown met me inside the Caprice, and we also made
some new friends – Leslee and Cheryl – who just might join the Gung
Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team!

Almost Finished! our dragon boat head carvings for Gung Haggis dragon boat team

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Carving dragon boat heads is a lot of work.  Imagine standing
while hammering and chiseling for almost 5 hours a day.  Both Bob
Brinson and I were there everyday.  Bob supervised our carving
when I had to work at the library, and I supervised when he had his
errands.

The carving experience exceeded our expectations of how much fun and
how much work it would be.  I would definitely recommend it for
every dragon boat team to try.  It brings everybody together both
on the team, and amongst the teams in the workshop.  We
recommended that 6 teams would be a good number and having a minimum of
6 people from each team participating.  We were definitely plagued
by a lack of participants as many of our team members were unable to
attend the mid-week carving sessions.  I would definitely
recommend including TWO weekends, as Saturdays and Sundays would also
encourage the most spectators. 

The first time you do anything is always a challenge.  We have
lots of pictures and stories to share over beers and nachos now. 

See all our carving pictures at www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/DragonBoatheadcarving

Global Discoveries 2005 – Call for emerging World Music Artists + Showcase

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Here's
a great opportunity for emerging World Musci Artists to be discovered
and receive valuable development information – Check out:

Global Discoveries 2005

Call for World Music Artists:
Showcase &
Commercial Drive Festival
Info: 604-684-5535
www.caravanworld.homestead.com/Globalinfo.html

Caravan
World Rhythms, in association with Britannia Community Services Centre,
is seeking emerging and undiscovered world music artists based in
British Columbia to perform at a Showcase event on April 29, 30 &
May 1, 2005. We will also be offering free Professional Development
workshops related to the World Music industry with special guest
presenters.  More Established World Music groups can apply to the
Global Discoveries Festival on Commercial Drive.

KEY DATES
Application deadlines:
Showcase: March 4, 2005
Festival: March 11, 2005
Auditions for Showcase: March 18-20
Workshops and Public Showcase Performance: April 29, 30, & May 1

The Global Discoveries Showcase will:
> Provide unknown professional artists from diverse cultural communities
the opportunity to reach producers of cultural events
> Provide an opportunity for emerging artists to network with established professionals in the world music community

Spotlight Showcases
This
year, in addition to our regular showcase presentations,Global
Discoveries will include 2 new spotlight showcases.  These showcases
will feature vibrant trends in world music today:

> Latin Music – traditional expressions and contemporary dance music
> Electronica – Worldbeat Fusion: DJ's collaborating with world music artists.

These 2 Showcases will be part of the Global Discoveries Festival on Commercial Drive.
http://www.caravanworld.homestead.com/Globalinfo.html

Media reports for Vancouver's first dragon boat head & tail carving experience!

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Watch City TV for February 25th 11pm news.
Watch Vancouver Sun – not the Saturday edition – but next week soon.

Watch CBC TV – afternoon programs throughout March for “B-Connected” – Community updates throughout the day.

Anita Webster – media and communications coordinator for the Alcan
Dragon Boat Festival sent out press releases and contacted media to
alert them to the first-ever dragon boat head & tail carving
workshop in North America.

CBC TV had filmed us on Monday, Wednesday and came in on Friday for a
final report to check out progress development.  Laurence Knight
was director of the sequences that were filmed on Friday afternoon.

City TV came down as well, and filmed each of the dragon boat heads and
the teams in action.  Somehow… I was asked to give an
explanation on camera, about what was happening.  “We are carving
dragon boat heads and tails out of cedar logs.  The first time
ever this has happened that I know of, in North America.  Four
teams were selected for this pilot project.  Abreast in a Boat,
Women on Water came all the way from Ft. Langley, The Wong Way – a
family of Wongs… and Gung Haggis Fat Choy – the team that specializes
in multicultural fun highlighting Chinese and Scottish culture,” I said
wearing my green Gung Haggis Fat Choy t-shirt proudly.

It was kind of fun with the tv cameras in for the final day.  We
were proud of the work we had accomplished.  Each team has come a
long way.  We all marvelled at each others works of art. 
Every dragon has its own personality.  I hope every team can have
this wonderful chance to create something special like we had.

Carving Dragon boats in Vancouver's Roundhouse Community Centre for Thursday, February 25th.

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Carving Dragon boats in Vancouver's Roundhouse Community Centre for Thursday, February 25th.

Time is running out for finishing up our carving.  Yesterday,
we asked our instructor Eric Neighbor how long he thought it took
people to carve dragon boat heads in China.  “Oh- weeks, probably.”

“What! And we are doing this in five 5-hour days!”
“Well – just
to get started…This is a pilot project, I thought initially that people
would be able to be painting for Friday.   If we had one more
extra day for everybody, it should accomplish a lot and really help
people finish their carvings.”

I had hoped to get into our carving area early today so I could work
on re-doing some of my drawing plans.  My initial drawings haven't
accurately translated the Gung Haggis team logo into as satisfying a
rendering as I had hoped.  It wasn't until last week, when Eric
e-mailed me to say that there was one spot last in the workshop, and
would Gung Haggis Fat Choy confirm it's commitment.  We've done
pretty well, all things considered, in creating a design in the two
hours of class time on Sunday, and trying to render it into a wooden
log less than 24 hours later.  As well, we have tried to round up
paddling team members and friends to help carve something that's
probably never been done in North America before – create a wooden
dragon boat head from scratch.

I get to the Roundhouse at 2:30pm, and show Eric the photo-copied
enlarged pictures of our dragon boat logo, and how I would redesign the
log carving if I were to start over.  We discuss the pros and cons
of going with what we have, or redesigning the carving.  We are
not that far off.  If I did redesign the drawing, there would be
more of an angle for the head, to allow more neck and wave designs for
the neck.  We decide that it is far better to keep moving forward
than taking a step back.  We do want to have something to show for
our 5 days of carving effort, and not come in dead last in this pioneer
round of “X-treme Dragon Boat Head Carving Survivor.”  We want to
have something decent looking that looks like a dragon boat head and
tail when the CBC TV cameras come back on Friday afternoon.  We
want to have something that doesn't resemble a hacked up piece of log,
when the other teams come by to look at us.

We know the other teams well.  Bob Brinson used to coach the
Abreast in a Boat team.  I have known some of the team members
since 1997, when I first met the team and I introduced myself as a
fellow cancer survivor (1989).  Bob started coaching the Women on
Water team from Ft. Langley last year, and he even brought me out to
help coach one Saturday.  Some of the paddlers came down to
Seattle with us for the first dragon boat rodeo barrel racing in 2004
with the Tacoma Dragon Boat Association.  And we know the Wong Way
team.  I have known Peter Wong since about 1997, when we were
helping out with the Festival by taking out corporate sponsors. 
Ming Wong is Peter's nephew, Ming and I met in 1999 when we went down
to San Francisco for paddling with the Spirit of Vancouver team
organized by Richard Mah.  Peter's father William Wong – known as
“Uncle Bill,” grew up in Strathcona with my uncles and aunts, and my
Uncle Laddie has worked in Modernize Tailors for decades. 
We
all know each other.  We have raced against each other on the
water.  And despite our friendly natures, we all have an inner
competitive nature deep down inside.  We don't want to be last.

Every team has been experiencing carving challenges.  One
dragon's eye splinters off, another dragon's tail cracks and needs to
be glued, another team makes a mistake and gouges too deep and cuts in
the wrong area.  But we all adjust and move on.  We don't
have time to brood about bad decisions or mistakes.  Despite the
pressures, I never hear anybody raise a voice to anybody else. 
Everybody's spirits are buoyant.  Everybody is excited.  We
are all over the hump with our carvings, we can see the shapes
emerging.  And some teams are starting their detailing work –
carving out eyes and mouths, adding spikes to the back of the neck.

Thursday is day four of carving.  I have finally prepared a
design for our tail.  Bob wanted to emphasize the wave designs
from the logo, and I couldn't visualize his ideas until we finally had
them on paper.  My drawing looks incredible.  I am very
happy.  Our design has a tail hidden yet emerging from the
waves.  I will have to post a photo of the drawing so you can
figure it out.  It is abstract and radical.  But then we
don't want to be like everybody else.  We want to be outrageous,
ahead of the curve…

While I am working on my design, a young Asian woman approaches me
and asks, “You must be Todd?”  “You must be Pamela…” I
smile.  Pamela contacted me two weeks ago and asked about joining
the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.  She found us on the
internet.  If you google “Vancouver + dragon + boats” – Gung
Haggis Fat Choy comes up #5 and #6.  Very cool!  Pamela says
she likes the multicultural emphasis we place on the team, and that
website articles demonstrate that we do very interesting
activities.  Gee… I think, we are probably the only team that does
Tai Chi in the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens, wears kilts and/or tartans, has
a Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner, and has been featured globally
on French public broadcast television.  I give Pamela a tour of
our carving area and show her our design plans.  We put her to
work helping to carve the nose, teeth and mouth.  She smiles later
and says, “This is much easier than I thought it would be.”

Alf and Dave show up soon and we get to work on the tail.  We
draw out the waves for the tail, and start gouging the designs in the
wood.  It's an unconventional design, and I think they understand
it.

My cell phone rings and it is Anita Webster, media and
communications coordinator for the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival. 
She got my e-mail about the dragon boat carving and is excited about
it.  She thinks it makes a good story and wants to get some TV
cameras down, and some radio reporters to record the sounds of hammers
and chisels that she can hear over the cell phone.  She asks how
the project got started and I hand my phone over to Eric
Neighbor.  10 minutes later, I have to ask Eric for my phone back,
as it is now time for me to do my work shift at the Vancouver Public
Library (gotta make money somehow!)  Anita says she will call the
media in the morning and send out press releases. 

At 9:15pm I return to the Roundhouse Community Centre.  Most of
the carvers have all left.  Bob and I ponder how we will make our
carvings look semi-decently finished when the CBC TV cameras show up
again tomorrow.  He wraps the dragon's neck up in the tartan sash
I brought, and with a broad smile… he says to me, “Do you think we
should wear our kilts tomorrow?”