Category Archives: Uncategorized

Gung Haggis dragon boat team is the fastest 16 paddler team at Harrision Dragon Boat Regatta

Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team team paddles in their 2nd race of the day, which they came 1st in.   Deb Martin is drummer and Manfred Preuss is guest steers – photo Marion Fang

Summary of  dragon boat racing at Harrison Dragon Boat Regatta by Karl Castillo

Congratulations to our successful Harrison Dragon Boat Regatta on July 21st.  Paddling with only 15 from Gung Haggis and a borrowed paddler from the combine MetroVancouver 44 Cheeks / SwordFish team, we did a lot better than we have expected.  Thanks to Manfred and Shawn for the excellent steering, Deb Martin for being an excellent drummer, and Anne Darrousin for being able to paddle even without practice for almost a month during her vacation.

We paddled far beyond our expectations and here are the results:

Race 10 (200m) Lane 2: 4th – 0:59.750
Race 27 (my lucky number and bday, 500m) Lane 3: 1st – 2:34.280
Race 35 (500m) Lane 1: 4th – 2:33.280
Race 49 (500m, D Final Consolation) Lane 2: 5th – 2:43.870

For the record, the time of everyone in that heat increased dramatically as well.

For 16 people we were expected to be in the lower division (ie. E consolation/final), however, because of passion and heart that everyone showed. We have beaten the odds and made it to a division where we would be considered as underdogs.

Good racing. Have a well earned sleep and alcohol.

Once again, congratulations to the fastest 16-paddler boat!

Xanadu delights with historical cultural confusion and fun!

Now playing until August 4
Granville Island Stage

http://www.artsclub.com/20112012/plays/xanadu.htm

 

Take the name of the Kubla Khan palace visited by Venetian explorer Marco Polo in 1275, mix in some Greek muses and powerful gods such as Zeus, Hera and Aphrodite, stir in some 1970’s pop music by Olivia Newton-Johna and Electric Light Orchestra, and re-write the forgotten 1980 Newton-John/ Gene Kelly movie Xanadu as a 1980’s spoof musical and we have a fun cultural mash-up parody.

I admit I collected the records of Electric Light Orchestra and Olivia Newtow-John in the 1970’s and early 80’s.  And I did see the movie on plane trip back from Hawaii.  So I was definitely musically prepared to see this show.  I had also googled the Xanadu Broadway musical, and found this promotional youtube video.

Xanadu the Musical – Sizzle! – YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh-VicEJrDo21 Apr 2008 – 4 min – Uploaded by XanadutheMusical
Scenes and interviews From the Xanadu the Musical on Broadway! For more, visit XanaduOnBroadway.com.

The Arts Club has done an amazing job in a small space at the Arts Club Granville Island Stage.  It’s not the large Broadway theatre production, but it is a perfect size for summer theatre.

The  general story arc is a young artist contemplates suicide, but is inspired by a female figure that encourages him to create his dream – where all the arts of music, dance, art and theatre can come together in one place – a roller disco!

Gaelan Beatty plays Sonny, the distraught artist who is dressed in a jean vest and head band like somebody from a 1984 Bruce Springsteen concert.  Marlie Collins is the Greek muse come to life, and disguised with an Australian accent, while wearing roller skates and legwarmers that came out of Olivia Newton-John’s 1982 music video Physical.  Both do a great job, speaking seriously about the importance of art and creative inspiration, while referencing 1980’s icons and events.

Vincent Tong is a magnificient multi-tasker playing multiple roles as a muse, a cyclops, and a Gene Kellyesque dancer.  It is amazing watching the entire cast sing and dance with smiles on their faces.  They really look like they are having so much fun.

This production has even added some of the more famous songs by Electric Light Orchestra and Olivia Newton-John from the ’70’s such as Strange Magic, Evil Woman and Have You Never Been Mellow – that weren’t originally featured in the 1980 movie.  They are integrated seamlessly into the storyline.

 

more later – tw

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some videos from the Arts Club website.

PLAY
Trailer
 PLAY
Dean Paul Gibson
& Lisa Stevens
 PLAY
Gaelan Beatty
& Marlie Collins
 PLAY
Rehearsals
 PLAY
Behind the Scenes

Historic Joy Kogawa House… named one of 125 Places that Matter… by Vancouver Heritage Foundation

We had a ceremony with Vancouver Heritage Foundation to unveil the plaque that included Historic Joy Kogawa House as 125 Places that Matter in Vancouver!
Our lovely plaque!
Jessica Quan – Vancouvfer Heritage Foundation, Barbara Vanderburgh – Board Member of VHF, Michael Kluckner – artist, Todd Wong – president of Historic Joy Kogawa House/ Board member of The Land Conservancy of BC, Tamsin Baker – Vancouver Area Manager TLC, Ann-Marie Metten – Executive Director Historic Joy Kogawa House.

Happy Duan Wu Double Fifth Chinese Festival mixed with Greek Days on Broadway in Vancouver Day!!!

It’s Greek Day on Broadway St. in Vancouver… on the same weekend as Chinese Duanwu Festival, also known as Dragon Boat Festival and the Double Fifth, is a traditional and statutory holiday originating in China… hmmm…. time for a Chinese-Greek-fusion festival… Greek Haggis Fat Choy? Gung Greek Fat Choy? waitminit… don’t the Greeks wrap up rice in grape leaves and call them dolmades? Gung Haggis Fat Dolmades???
Check out this picture from China below – they are dressed up as rice dumplings, wrapped in green tea leaves… with strings attached. It is traditional to throw rice dumplings into the water at a dragon boat festival…. I should bring some to practice today.
 Check out Greek Day in Vancouver.  www.greekday.com

GREEK DAY 2012, Sunday June 24th – Greek Heritage Month & Greek Day

Gung Haggis dragon boat team has a wet day at the races… advances Sunday morning to Race 63 10:12am.

Gung Haggis dragon boat team Sunday morning Race 63 @10:12am. Paddlers please arrive by 8:45am.  

A 1st place finish will go to Rec D Final… 2:03pm  Three Fastest 2nd from Race 59,61,63,65,67 to Race 84 – any thing slower and we go into the consolation races prior.

Today was a great day for dragon boat racing at the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival – if you were a duck!

The heavey rain that got everything wet sucked – but team attitudes were great!!!
1st race – new seating orders, brand new drummer Deborah, 1st race anxiety jitters… and a time of 2:43-something…
– good race – but we still had gas in the tank.

2nd race – more seating changes, another brand new drummer Diana, rate was a bit high, timing went in and out by the 1st half – and we started to burn ourselves out… but by the 1/2 mark, the rate came down, and the timing came together – and we had a strong finish… with a time of 2:42.470.
So despite spinning our wheels and going out of time, we still improved!

Each race is a learning experience for our rookie paddlers – and our veteran paddlers are providing good leadership and knowledge.

Tomorrow we will bring down the rate for the start… and have a good steady, strong race.

KEEP… IT… STEADY!

Click on Dragon Boat BC Facebook Group – for race results, and the race grid for Sunday
https://www.facebook.com/thedragonboatbc

Or check here:

The race grid for festival weekend is here: 2012 Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival Race Grid

Saturday results: 2012 RTADBF Saturday Results

Sunday advancements: 2012 RTADBF Sunday Race Grid

Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team races Saturday at 9:50am and probably 1:52pm for Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival

Our core paddlers have been paddling since March… and we are ready….
Our new paddlers are enthusiastic, and learning more every time they step in the boat…
And we arrive on site 90 minutes prior to the race start.
We are ready!
Our first race is 9:50 Race #11
We are in race 11, lane 7
We are seeded 6th – and will most likely come 6th or 5th, but not 7th
If we finish

5th we go to Race 31 – 1:30

6th to Race 33 – 1:52
7th to Race 35 – 2:14pm

Sunday 1st race will depend on how we finish in our Saturday afternoon race.
We are a fun recreation team – so we could end up:
Rec E consolation 1:30
Rec E Final 1:41
Rec D consolation 1:52
Rec D Final 2:03
Rec C consolation 2:14
Rec C final 2:25

Getting ready for the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival on June 16/17

Gung Haggis dragon boat team practice – 2nd last practice before Rio Tinto Alcan Festival

Good practice today!  We focused on race tactics as well as race day procedures.  Some of our paddlers only practice on Sundays or Wednesdays, so we will do the same thing on Wednesday.

After a warm-up, we explained where the team tents will be set up, and where the marshalling area will be.  At last weekend’s regatta, races were 15 minutes apart.  We then went through loading the boat, and how busy it will be on the dock, and leaving the docks to the race staging area on the water.

We did some paddling warm-ups for rotation, hips, reach and rate, then practiced some starts, then paddled to the race staging area in East Bay.  We quickly found the Hydro Dragons coached by Dan Hebert, whom I have known for about 10 years.  Dan called a race start between our two boats.  The start was close – both teams pulling hard with each stroke.  As I drummed for Gung Haggis, I stole glances at the Hydro team, watching the boat beside us.  I called a Power Series, and the team responded, digging deep for 20 strokes.

At the half way mark, the Hydro team pulled forward, and had to move to the left, as there was a boat anchored in the East Bay, in the middle of what will be the race course next weekend.  Our boat took in some water as Dan’s coach boat cast a wake in our path.  Some of our paddlers were distracted by the unexpected surprises of course change and boat wake.  This is a good exercise in dealing with unexpected surprises.  The Hydro Dragons proved to have a strong finish, and crossed the finish line before us.  We congratulated them, then did our own race debrief.

We then headed for the Center Bay of False Creek and did some exercises to help improve our race starts: front half and back half race starts.  This served to show the newer paddlers how well the veteran paddlers perform, and to inspire them.  The back half proved to be powerful, but with some timing issues and room for improvement.  We do believe in our new padders, and want to encourage them – there is great potential here that will be realized not in the next weekend, but later this summer.

We had our paddlers switch sides to work out on both sides of the body.  This is something we regularly do to encourage body symmetry and help develop paddling technique for both sides of the body.  We next worked on power series drills for front, middle and back thirds, while the rest of the team paddled 60% effort.  Next we turned the team over to veteran paddler Keng Graal who is also one of the team’s drummers.  Keng explained how she calls for the team, and what she expects.  She called a short race piece, to allow the paddlers to get used to her voice.

As we approached the startline in the East Bay, beside the island, we gave the paddlers a rest, and practiced some commands for positioning the boat.  We asked the paddlers to back paddle, and left front draw, right side draw – all to get the paddlers used to what may happen on Race Day.

We did one final race piece of 500m, with Keng as drummer.  This was good.  Keng is a demanding drummer that commands attention.  She first came to the team about 7 years ago in 2007.  She had been a drummer for the CC Riders dragon boat team for Columbia College.  We trained her to be a paddler.  The first race she did with us was 1000m.  She survived…  She stayed with the team… and has paddled with us in many races and has really grown into a team leader.  She is small, but really pulls a lot of water for her size.

We look forward to a great weekend for June 16/17.  We have great leaders on this team with Keng, Steven and Debbie as assistant coaches, Deb as steersperson, Karl and Gio as lead strokes, Xavier as “master of the kilt!”

Everybody on this team brings something.  It might be strength, experience, or a great sense of humour.  We encourage and acknowledge every person’s personality, and especially the cultural diversity that each paddler brings.  We have fun and we both encourage and tease each other, as well as respect each other, and what each person brings to the team.  This is good team building.  This is a good team.  I am having fun, and especially getting to know our new paddlers.

 

We only had 16 paddlers out on the water this Sunday – but we had fun…. and that is what is important.

Paddlers out on Sunday were:

Karl & Gio

Keng & Amelia

Caroline & Xavier

Steven & Walter

Florian & Gerard

Pedro & Todd

Justin & John

Pierce & Sabina

+ Deb Martin as steersperson.

Happy Italian Day – I will help celebrate on Commercial Drive today

In my heart I am Italian… Italian was my 3rd language (musically speaking), I play Italian-made Titano accordion, especially Funiculi Funicula and O Solo Mio, I grew up in Italian neighborhood of Grandview, I love cooking pasta… I dated Italian-Canadian girls… I loved Marco Polo Restaurant (wait – that was in Chinatown!) http://italianday.ca/

Okay… I think that more than qualifies me for being Italian.  Much more than last week when Christie Clark states  “In my heart I am Filipina” at an event for Phillipine Independence Day- http://www.theprovince.com/entertainment/heart+Filipina+says+Christy+Clark+Vancouver+Philippine+Independence/6723725/story.html

 

Italian day | on Commercial Drive

italianday.ca

Italian Day on the Drive Sunday, June 10, 2012, 12 PM – 8 PM The Italian Day Festival Society in collaboration with the Commercial Drive Business Society and the Italian Cultural Centre are excited to organize and present for the third consecutive year – Italian Day: a celebration of Italian her…

UBC gives degrees to 76 Japanese-Canadian students who were interned in 1942

UBC Remembers the Japanese Canadian Students of 1942

special to www.gunghaggis.com – By Allan Cho
On one sunny day in May 22, 2008 — Mary Kitagawa wrote to President and Vice Chancellor Stephen Toope inquiring about the possibility of UBC honouring its Japanese Canadian students who were taken out of university and put into internment camps.   In 1942, William Lyon McKenzie King’s government followed the American lead and removed 22,000 innocent Canadians of Japanese descent from the coast to prison work camps by separating the men from their young families – the War Measures Act, it was called.  The 76 UBC students were not exempted from this mass removal.
Mary Kitagawa’s 2008 letter was passed on to the Chair of the UBC Senate Tributes Committee.    Mary’s long and arduous cause for justice took four years and numerous campaigns to the media including the Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association Bulletin, Nikkei Voice, and the Vancouver Sun.  On October 5, 2011, UBC promised Mary that it would honour and recognize the former 76 UBC students, educate future UBC students about this dark episode in the form of an Asian Canadian Studies program; and also to have UBC Library preserve and bring to life the historical record.
On May 31, 2012, appropriately on the final day of Asian Heritage Month, these 76 students (some of them family representatives for those who passed away) were honoured at the Spring Convocation at the beautiful Chan Centre.   The classy evening tribute included a speech by Arthur Miki, an excerpt of a play “Shadow Catch” by Michael Mori, and “Songs from the 40’s” by Dal Richards which brought the audience back to the eve of war time in Canada. 
There was not a dry eye in the house as 92 year old Canadian music legend Harry Aoki walked across the stage to accept the degree on behalf of his brother, Ted.  At times, President Stephen Toope’s voice cracked at times, as he tried to hold back emotions of the evening’s procession.   Although many of the students of 1942 had passed on, their descendants and families did them proud by continuing and realizing their journey in Canada. 
Here are 3 links to some good links
  1. UBC awards degrees to interned Japanese Canadian students

    www.cbc.ca/…/canada/…/bc-internment-ubc-honorary-degrees.html

    30 May 2012 – UBC is bestowing degrees on 76 Japanese Canadian students who were forced off the campus after the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbour.

  2. Strombo | 70 Years Later: JapaneseCanadian UBC Students To

    www.cbc.ca/…/canada/70-years-later-japanesecanadianubc-students…

    30 May 2012 – Today, 76 JapaneseCanadian students whose education at UBC was halted when they were exiled are being granted honorary degrees from

  3. News for ubc degrees, japanese canadian


    CBC.ca
    1. JapaneseCanadians kicked out of UBC receive degrees – 70 years later

      Vancouver Sun‎ – 6 days ago
      In 1942, Roy Oshiro had just written his first exam at the University of British Columbia when he was told he wouldn’t be coming back.

Toronto author Jan Wong brings a story of discrimination, betrayal, illness, justice and recovery to Kogawa House,

We had a good event at Kogawa House with author Jan Wong – check out http://www.janwong.ca/ for information on Jan Wong’s new book.  Jan is the author of Red China Blues and Beijing Confidential.  She was the former bureau Chief for the Globe & Mail, where she was also a features writer.  For many years her column “Lunch with Jan Wong” was one of the most highly read articles as she lunched with celebrities… and wrote about what was said, and not said… eaten and not eaten…

Lunch at Kogawa House was very nice – my pictures are here:

Jan spoke about the issues of big corporations such as the Globe & Mail, and Manu-Life insurance being dysfunctional and pathological.  When she was denied sick leave from G&M, Manu-Life was also secretly video-taping her at speaking events for her book Beijing Confidential.  When you trust the company you work for, and are willing to go find the stories for the same company – it was a tremendous betrayal to Jan.
Jan Wong’s self-published memoir hits bestseller list. Out of the Blue is currently No. 77 on Amazon.ca’s Top 100, and 46 on Indigo’s Top 50 list. Oh… and this book which also describes her “divorce” from the Globe & Mail, where she was a star reporter and features writer – is also on the G&M best seller list too!

www.thestar.com