Check out www.explorasian.org for details of the following events.
29/5/2005
Roundhouse Community Centre
THE CHEN LING ACADEMY OF DANCE
Chinese Folk, Minority, Classical and Modern Dance
29/5/2005
CBC Radio Studio One, 700 Hamilton Street, Vancouver
explorSTUDIO:
The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra
30/5/2005
Pacific Cinemateque
BEYOND
Short Works Telling Asian Stories
Curated by Yasmin Karim
31/5/2005
Alliance Française de Vancouver
Indonesian Evening
How did this happen?
I volunteered to perform for a special fundraiser for Vancouver city
councillor Ellen Woodsworth and to help celebrated her birthday.
Anyways… the theme is clear. More skirts are needed in Politics,
More Human beings in touch with both their masculine and their feminie.
More Balance… Toddish McWong will be wearing his kilt, and releasing
his inner creative talents with a special song for Women in Politics,
and acknowledgement to Ellen Woodsworth.
Encouraging Women In Politics Fundraiser & Dance
Friday, May 27, 2005 at 20:00 to 1:00 at
WISE Hall
1882 Adanac St., Vancouver, BC
Join Councillor Ellen Woodsworth and friends at the Wise Hall for food,
dance, good conversation and great fun! With special guests, the Joni
Miller / Eastman Band, No Shit Shirleys, and Sara Kendall!
The Joni Miller / Eastman Band is one great dance band, No Shit
Shirleys is an all women acapella group, and Sara Kendall is a hip rap
artist. This will be one great event, so hurry and get your tickets
today!
Tickets are on a sliding scale, $25.00 – $100.00 (No one turned
away). Call or email the COPE office today to reserve your tickets!
604-255-0400 or cope@cope.bc.ca.
———————————————————
TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY MOVIE
CHAIRMAN GEORGE – QUEST FOR THE TORCH
How a Greek-Canadian
government statistician reinvented himself as a rising Chinese pop star with dreams of bringing a message of
unity to the Olympic Games.
CTV
NATIONAL BROADCAST in CANADA
SATURDAY MAY
28 7-8 PM
Directed by Daniel Cross ,
Produced by
EyeSteelFilm
in association with CTV, BBC and TV2 Denmark
New CD Soundtrack: 'George
from Athens to Beijing'
(16 chinese and greek songs plus 5 voicebites from
documentary)
Visit www.chairmangeorge.com to buy the CD
Or contact george_sapounidis@hotmail.com with CD
orders.
Here's an press release from my
friends at Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre re: upcoming 3rd Annual
Asian Sketch Comedy Competition.
This is a VERY funny event. They make jokes about Asian culture
and stereotypes that all Asians can relate to… even if you are White,
it still relates to that little Asian voice inside of
everybody… they even make jokes about White people and White
culture. Is nothing sacred anymore?
Cheers, Todd
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For Immediate Release
NEWS RELEASE
North America’s premier Asian Sketch Comedy Trophy up for grabs again in Vancouver
SKETCHOFF!#$%!! – 3rd Annual Asian Sketch Comedy Competition
VANCOUVER, BC (April 30, 2005) – The trophy? It’s the coveted VACT Rice
Bowl. The event? Sketchoff!#$%!!: Ha Ha HA! – the 3rd Annual Asian
Sketch Comedy Competition. When is the rumble? May 27th and 28th. And
the stadium where tears and laughter will be shed? The Roundhouse
Performance Centre in Yaletown.
Once again, 3 teams of North America’s finest “hyphenated-Asian” comedy
talents come to Vancouver to compete in the world’s only Asian sketch
comedy challenge. Hosted and produced annually by Vancouver Asian
Canadian Theatre (VACT) during the Asian Heritage Month celebrations,
this event has treated sold-out audiences to some of the most hilarious
and innovative sketch comedy routines, blending pure laughs with North
American ethnic diversity and cultural insight.
The two-time winner, LA OPM, from Los Angeles, took the Rice Bowl
trophy to the Oscars ceremonies, will be challenged this year by two
Canadian teams – Toronto’s The Kupps, made up of Second City veterans
and Vancouver’s own Assaulted Fish, freshly netted from their
performance at Sketchfest 2005.
Celebrity judges will jury the teams on Friday, May 27th, where the
winner will be awarded the coveted Rice Bowl trophy. On the following
evening, Saturday May 28th, the audience members themselves will choose
the winning team who will receive the People’s Choys Award. All teams
are allowed to replace or rework any of their sketches from the
previous evening. So expect the pandering to be shameless for this
award.
The host this year will be Tom Chin, with a special guest performance by stand-up comedian Jeffery Yu.
Also a part of this weekend of celebration, VACT will be hosting at the
Roundhouse a public demonstration and discussion workshop on sketch
comedy on Saturday May 28th at 4:00 PM. Billed as Meet The Mockers, the
3 teams will be available to take questions from the audience and
provide insights into their process and their careers. Admission is
free.
For more information on each team, please visit http://www.vact.ca
Event Details
Sketchoff!#$%!!: Ha Ha HA! – 3rd Annual Asian Sketch Comedy Competition
@ Roundhouse Performance Centre
Davie & Pacific Blvd., Vancouver
Dates and Showtimes
Friday May 27 8:00 PM (Rice Bowl trophy)
Saturday May 28 8:00 PM (People’s Choys Award)
Ticket prices
$17 advance at the Roundhouse (in person or by phone: 604-713-1800)
$20 at the door
Note: 14A; some coarse language and sexually suggestive material.
Free public workshop and Q & A session
Meet The Mockers
4:00 PM
@ Roundhouse Performance Centre
Davie & Pacific Blvd., Vancouver
Free admission (donation recommended)
Media passes available. Please RSVP to Joyce Lam at the e-mail address or phone number listed below, no later than May 17.
VACT (Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre) aims to produce quality plays
in which Asian-Canadians take on culturally or artistically significant
roles. VACT works to dispel Asian stereotypes by producing leading
and/or supporting roles where Asian-Canadians are depicted
realistically in the performing arts.
-30-
For photos, interviews with the performers, and media passes, please contact:
Joyce Lam, President, Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre
T: 778-885-1973 E: joyla@shaw.ca
Check out the following for the new show at the Centre in
Vancouver for Performing Arts. I enjoyed the previous
productions of Heaven and Earth and Terracotta Warrriors.
I admit some background in Chinese history and mythology
helped make it more enjoyable, but Terracotta Warriors
held up well with repeated viewings, with its incredible
acrobatics and martial arts. For me, attending Chinese
oriented productions is really attending something from a
different culture, as I am a 5th generation Vancouverite.
I used to hate seeing Chinese opera and films (until we
discovered Bruce Lee movies!) But I found it really
resonated that I can explore and enjoy Chinese culture
- truly one of the world's great cultures that is so often
misinterpreted and misunderstood in Western Society
(knowing firsthand -after growing in misinterpreted and
misunderstood in Canadian socity... am I Cbinese?
or am I Canadian? gee... how about a little of both!)
See my reviews and pictures of last year's production
Terracotta Warriors
Senses
A Song and Dance Concert to Arouse your Senses!
A Celebration of Chinese Womanhood featuring dancer
Tang Jia Li
Billed as the song and dance concert that arouses all your senses,
this show has an added theme of celebrating the beauty and artistry
of Chinese womanhood.
Senses, the show, will feature each evening a pair of dancers, two
singers (a tenor and a female Chinese folk singer), nine female
musicians, and six accompanying dancers.
The headlining female dancer is Tang Jia Li, famous not only
because of her dancing agility but also because of her exquisite
beauty and elegance as seen through her well-known and artistic
library of nude photography. Together with the rest of the female
cast of Senses, the world will appreciate a new and modern face
of Chinese women not previously seen before.
Through specially orchestrated music that fuses the best of the
East with the best of the West, Senses will showcase to the
audience a different side of Chinese stage art and culture. Without
discarding the hallmarks of Chinese tradition and history, Senses
will reveal a new style and attitude of appropriate slogans for this
unusual live-stage presentation of Chinese female artists.
This show will truly arouse all your senses!
Parental Discretion Advised
This is the hot ticket for Asian Heritage Month. Hot discussion
is sure to come up with how the media represents/misrepresents Asian
Canadian arts and culture.
Max Wyman is the author of The Defiant Imagination,
and incredible book about Canadian culture and how Multiculturalism is
important to expanding how we see ourselves. I first met Max when
I was able to invite him to see Terracotta Warriors, because I felt
that Asian Arts were being unfairly reviewed by the media. Click
here for my commentary that was turned into a CBC Radio commentary.
Barb Lee, Sherry Yoon, Donna Spencer, Ken Lum are all accomplished artistic producers, and should have a lot to say:
See you there!
Join us at UBC Robson Square for a community forum organized in partnership
with the UBC, Laurier Institution and CBC Radio as part of the ninth annual
explorASIAN Festival celebrating Pan-Asian arts and culture.
Vancouver's arts and culture scene ranges from CantoPop to Bangra to
Shakespeare. But does this reflect a unique cultural fusion or a confusion
of cultures? Join a diverse panel of artists and critics in an exploration
of Vancouver's Cultural (Con) Fusion.
This forum is open to the public and all media organziations are invited to
attend and participate in the discussion.
Moderators: Paul Grant, CBC Radio and Rena Heer, Channel M
Panelists:
Barbara Lee, founder of Vancouver Asian Film Festival Society, writer and
filmmaker
Ken Lum, one of Canada's most celebrated and internationally exhibited
artists
Donna Spencer, Artistic Director, Firehall Arts Centre
Max Wyman, Vancouver writer, founder and former editor of The Vancouver Sun
Review of Books and one of Canada's leading cultural commentators
Sherry Yoon, Artistic Director, Boca del Lupo
Time: 7 pm
Place: UBC Robson Square, Theatre
FREE – ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED
To find out more and reserve your seat, call 604-822-1444 or visit
www.cstudies.ubc.ca/explorasian.
UP 335 S05A
This forum will be recorded by CBC Radio for future broadcast.
Link: www.cstudies.ubc.ca/explorasian
Link: www.thelaurier.ca
This should be an amazing show:
The Korean Consulate has put in extra money to bring performers over
from Korea… Sekoya is a home grown Canadian talent, and it
should be interesting to see what Garib and Paroo do with “Bombay
Dreams.”
Executive Don Montgomery has put in lots of hard work to make this the best Gala show ever!
Click here to download the printable version of the GALA 8.5×11 Poster (2 MB PDF)
Please print out the poster file and display in your workplace and pass along to friends.
Proceeds from the Gala go towards supporting the Society's artistic and multicultural community programs.
Please
tell your friends about the Gala. It will be one of the best shows you
will see this year. A terrific entertainment value for the entire
family!
BC Book Week: Think I'll be going to the BC Book Prizes Soiree at Crush Champagne Lounge
I love books and magazine!
My office contains five book shelves dedicated to books, one to
magazines, one to cd's and one to vinyl records (what the heck are
they?)
Here's are some of choices to attend for this week to celebrate BC Book & Magazine Week: April 23 to April 30, 2005.
BC Book & Magazine Week: a collective project coordinated by the Association of Book Publishers of BC (ABPBC) and the BC Association of Magazine Publishers
(BCAMP). This weeklong literary celebration was founded in January 1999
as BC Book Week and in 2001, the week expanded to include the magazine
Saturday, April 23
The BC Book Prizes Soiree
7:00 pm
Crush Champagne Lounge
1180 Granville St., Vancouver
Info: 604-684-8266
The kick-off for the BC Book Prizes On Tour authors. A night of
readings, a silent auction, prize giveaways and announcement of the BC
Bookseller’s Contest winner!
Sunday, April 24
The Book and Magazine Promenade
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Vancouver Public Library Promenade
350 West Georgia St., Vancouver
Info: 604-684-0228 or 604-688-1175
Book and Magazine publishers will showcase their works in booths set up in the library’s promenade area.
Wednesday, April 27
Raincoast Books Spring Poetry Launch
7:00 pm
The Tahitian Lounge at The Waldorf Hotel
1489 East Hastings (between Clark and Commercial)
Info: 604-323-7100
Don’t miss this night of poetry! Readings by award-winning poets
Evelyn Lau, Aislinn Hunter, Kate Braid, Sandy Shreve and Canada’s
former poet laureate, George Bowering.
Click here to see more activities throughout the week
Terry Fox book by Douglas Coupland featured for CBC Radio One Book Club
The Terry Book Club
will air on North by Northwest on CBC Radio One.
Part One: Sat., April 30, 7 – 8 a.m.
Part Two: Sun., May 1, 8 – 9 a.m.
It was with both excitement and concern that host
Sheryl Mackay said she anticipated the presentation of “Terry” by
Douglas Coupland as the April 21st selection for the CBC Radio One Book
Card.
“You just can't get through it without crying,” said
Mackay. And true to her prediction, many people spoke emotionally
about the love for Terry Fox, or about their own challenges with
cancer, or about how cancer challenged their loved ones.
Mackay was joined by co-host John Burns from the
Georgia Straight, in welcoming both author Douglas Coupland, and the
younger brother of Terry Fox – Darrell Fox, who is now National
Director of the Terry Fox Run Foundation.
I will write more about the experience of being in
the emotionally and memory-charged room, but first I will post some of
the pictures from the event.
Author Douglas Coupland and family consultant Darrell Fox – who both
signed all the books. Douglas describes the Fox family as Canada's
“First Family.” Darrell says that Douglas is a member of the
family now.” So does that mean that Coupland is a member of “Canada's
First Family”?
Todd Wong standing with Sheryl Mackay, host of CBC
Radio's North By North West & the CBC Radio One Book
Club. Sheryl is a warm and congenial host always. It was a
pleasure to be a guest on her show in January as we talked about my
role with the Reverend Chan Legacy project that was being presented at
the Chinese Canadian History Fair at the Vancouver Museum.
Todd Wong with Douglas Coupland and Darrell Fox, at the CBC Radio
One Book Club for “Terry” – April 21st, 2005. It was Darrell Fox
who asked me to become a Terry's Team member in 1993.
“What is a Terry's Team member,” asked Sheryl.
“Cancer survivors who speak at Terry Fox Runs and for school visits,
who serve as living examples that cancer reseach has helped to make a
difference.
For my own cancer diagnois in 1989, I was given of a 60% survival
rate. At the time of Terry's Run in 1980, the survival rate was
about 50%, but by 1989 they were shooting for 100% survival rate.
My case was extremely advanced and without treatment I would have died
in two weeks.
CBC Radio Host Sheryl Mackay, Douglas Coupland, Darrell Fox and John Burns
32 Books: Leslie & owner Mary Trentadue. My favourite
independent book store on the North Shore – where I actually
bought my copy of “Terry” soon after it came out.
– Todd