Monthly Archives: November 2007

Hip, Hapa and Happening…. Nov 10th +

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Hip, Hapa and Happening…. Nov 10th +

Lots of Happening stuff this weekend.

Origami Masters Exhibition + PCOC 2007 Vancouver
Pendulum Gallery – until Nov 17th
Conference Nov 9-11th

I'm heading down to the Pacific Origami conference at Fairmont Hotel Vancouver to see the special exhibits, take some pictures and maybe interview some of the Origami Masters like Robert Lang, Eric Joisel and Vancouverite Joseph Wu.  There is also a special ORIGAMI MASTERS display at the Pendulum Gallery, at the HSBC Building across from the Vancouver Art Gallery on Georgia St.

War and Remembrance
Authors Ruth Ozeki and Shaena Lambert
Joy Kogawa House
1450 West 64th Ave.
November 10th  3-5pm

SOLD OUT!  This special reading event features Ozeki and Lambert both reading their newest works, and both deal with the Hiroshima bombing of WW2.  Special appearance by Joy Kogawa.  This is the latest event to help build awareness and funds for the restoration of historic Joy Kogawa House, saved from demolition last year by The Land Conservancy of BC and the Joy Kogawa House Committee

Remembrance Day
Cenotaph Ceremonies
November 11th
Victory Square 10:30 am preludes at 10:00
Chinatown Monument 12:30pm

I usually head down to Victory Square to see my grand-uncle Daniel Lee, marching with the Chinese-Canadian veterans.  For the past years, Uncle Dan has been one of the organizers of the Victory Square Cenotaph ceremony.  The Chinese-Canadian veterans also helped to build the Chinese pioneer monument at Keefer Triangle in Chinatown.  A ceremony takes place there at 12:30pm

Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat practice
Dragon Zone, Creekside Park at False Creek – south of Science World
Nov 11th, 2pm

Yes… the Gung Haggis dragon boat team is still paddling!  Last weekend I took the paddling clinic from the world champion False Creek Racing Canoe Club, and learned some of the paddling technique secrets that they used to win their medals in Sydney, Australia for the IDBF World Championships.  We are now passing some of these techniques on to our paddlers.  We meet at 2pm, do our warm-up with dryland training instruction, then head out on the water for 90 minutes from 2:30 to 4pm.

Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble plays with guitarist/composer John Oliver

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Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble plays with guitarist/composer John Oliver


[photo of musicians]

Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble
Autumn Concert
Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8pm
Norman Rothstein Theatre
950 West 41st Avenue (at Oak)

What happens when you take 5 very talented classically trained Chinese musicians and mix them up with composer/guitarist John Oliver, who likens his style to “an experimental mix inspired by John McLaughlin, Pat Methany
Group, Robert Fripp, and World Music, processed through computer
granular synthesis?”

All
these musicians are incredible solo artists in their own right. 
VCME leader and erhu player Ji-Rong Huang can often be found sometimes
at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens playing his “chinese violin” with
accompanying tracks on a cd player.  One time I discovered him
playing Hungarian Dance #5 – and I thought it would be great if we
could play together if I brought over my accordion.

Zhi Min Yu
is also the duet partner of John Oliver for their guitar / roan duo
when they perform together as the Oliver Yu Duo.  Zhi Min has also
performed with the Silk Road Music Ensemble and appeared in the CBC
television performance special “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” in 2004 and 2005.

Zhong
Xi Wu plays suona – an ancient Chinese reed pipe instrument.  But
I have also seen Zhong Xi perform bagpipes, and he performed in 2005 at
Gung Haggis Fat Choy with his wife Karen Wong.

Also performing
as part of VCME are Wei Li on zheng (Chinese zither), Qing Hua Zhen on
yangqin (Chinese hammered dulcimer) and Angela Wang on pipa (Chinese
lute) and vocal.

Guest artists artists include Kathryn Cernauskas (who performed at last
year's Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner) on flute, Laurence Mollerup on bass
and Bruce Henczel on percussion and marimba + John Oliver on MIDI
guitar.

Check out these amazing musicians and find out how East-West musical fusion blends with traditional Chinese music!

Info:
(604) 683-8240
zhaozhao @ dkam.ca

Geist Magazine features Todd Wong's photographs of Vancouver Library workers' strike Haiku poetry

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Geist Magazine features Todd Wong's photographs of Vancouver Library workers' strike Haiku poetry

During the Vancouver library strike, there was one morning when picketers put down their pickets, picked up a pen, and wrote Haiku poetry. 

This was the 1st strike in CUPE 391's 77 year union history.  What do librarians and library workers do on the picket line?  Continue being the information and cultural gatekeepers that they are when they are on the job.

This was a historic strike that was the most creative that the City of Vancouver had ever seen.  Library workers engaged the public and the media in positive ways that had never been seen before.  Haiku strike poetry only happened one day.  At the end of the day, the poetry was collected and sent out to various media outlets.

Click on www.geist.com to see a feature link article about the photographs that I took on the strike line, and also a short bio about me.

Striking Haiku

Todd Wong


Last
summer, Vancouver Public Library workers composed Strike Haiku during
their 88-day job action. Some wrote in the traditional 5,7,5 syllable
pattern and some wrote lines of 3,9,1 syllables to represent their
local union, CUPE 391.

Vancouver Women Love David Beckham

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Vancouver Women Love David Beckham


Our
Gung Haggis girls, Linda and Wendy, hold up their souvenir towels with
LA Galaxy soccer star David Beckham somewhere in the background down on
the field – photo Todd Wong/L.Daly collection

We
had a group of 11 Gung Haggis paddlers and 4 friends join us to go to
the LA Galaxy vs Vancouver White Caps game featuring David Beckham on
November 7th at BC Place Stadium.  We were all there to see soccer
superstar David Beckham, but the females in our group were more vocal
about being happy to attend the game and especially happy to see
Beckham.  Julie, Wendy, Linda, Jenna and even Keng!  When
Beckham took off his game jersey to give to a young fan, they declared
it a bonus seeing the topless Beckham.


David Beckham at centre field – photo L. Daly

I
haven't seen a lot of soccer games.  The last time was a White
Caps game was back in the 1980's, and it was at BC Place Stadium. 
But in the large stadium, it was generally easy to pick out the
blonde-headed Beckham.  The man carried himself with
presence.  His image was often up on the large video screen. 
The crowd cheered when he got the ball.  And… the entire arena
got excited when Beckham took two corner kicks in the 2nd half – but
neither were dangerous.

Soccer is a very multicultural
sport.  It is played almost everywhere in the world, probably even
at the research stations on Anarctica.  When I was growing up in
East Vancouver during the 60's and '70's the best soccer players were
the Italian and Portuguese-Canadian kids.  They were usually
taller and faster than me and my Chinese-Canadian friends.  But
sometimes we would get together and just have games with Asian kids –
then we were pretty well all the same size and still having fun.

Over
48,000 fans attended the game, the 4th largest in White Caps soccer
history.  I saw people from many ethnicities and heard many
different languages at the game.

Todd, Wendy, Jonas and Linda – sitting in the stands – photo Victor/L.Daly collection

Attending
the game was a great way for our dragon boat team members to socialize
during the off-season.  While in the stands, we talked about how
much we knew or didn't know about soccer.  We talked about
learning a new paddling technique, about going to different races –
like Hawaii if one of us won that night's $35 Million 6/49.

My library friend Kay took a video of Beckham's corner
kick.  Kay saw Beckham play many times for Manchester United while
she lived in England.   Kay also used to paddle for a UK
junior dragon boat team that raced at the World Championships. 
Maybe one day… Kay will come paddle for the Gung Haggis Fat Choy
dragon boat team. She sent me this review of the game:

“Having seen David Beckham play many times for Manchester United, I
found the Whitecaps game a very different experience. I think a lot of
it was down to the enclosed stadium. Although the crowd was far quieter
than your average Premier League crowd (who sing, shout, cheer and
stamp their feet at a deafening level, so you emerge after 90 minutes
with your ears still ringing) the atmosphere felt a lot closer and more
intimate in the indoor stadium. The pitch also looked smaller than the
Premier League standard, although that might have been my imagination.

“On
the pitch, Becks was still Becks. He's slower than he used to be, but
his right foot still has the magic. In the United treble-winning team,
he didn't really stand out because the whole team were so good. In this
match, he was clearly a class apart. He can still hit a cross with
pinpoint accuracy, and send a ball two-thirds of the way up the pitch
onto the toe of the player running for the pass. He's also still a
consummate professional, and very much a team player: he never holds
onto the ball when he can see someone in a better position.

“The
match wasn't stellar football by any means (although the Whitecaps
should definitely have won) but with the Beckham show in town, most
people weren't really there for the football. Personally, I was there
for the memories – and it was a wonderful reminder of the best United
team I ever saw.”

A
man proposed to his girlfriend on the video screen while the game was
in progress during the second half.  She said yes.  But the
biggest cheer of the night went to a streaker who ran up the East side
of the field, across the North side, then down the West side before he
was finally tackled.

The streaker had a good run. – photo L. Daly – Click on this link for the you tube video by Kay.

Check out the story on Beckham star attraction for 48172 soccer fans in Vancouver

Origami Conference come to Vancouver… The best folders such as as Eric Joisel and Robert Lang have come to Vancouver – home of origami master Joseph Wu

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Origami Conference come to Vancouver…
 
The best folders such as as Eric Joisel and Robert Lang have come to Vancouver – home of origami master Joseph Wu

Musicians designed & folded by Eric Joisel. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wu.

I learned how to fold origami as a child.  First I folded hats and fish and boats… then I folded cranes and frogs.  By the age of 12, I was folding intricate dragons and reindeer…. then a unicorn from a single piece of paper.

November 9-11 is the Pacific Origami Conference at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.

ORIGAMI MASTERS is incredible display of over 100 origami pieces created, designed and folded by Origami Masters from 10 different countries. It will be at the Pendulum in the HSBC Building (855 West Georgia) from Oct. 29th and has been extended to November 17th. 

The viewing hours are:

  • Monday to Wednesday: 9 am to 6 pm
  • Thursday & Friday: 9 am to 9 pm
  • Saturday: 9 am to 5 pm
  • Sunday: closed

20071102_171115 Here are some of Eric Joisel's models.

Check out pictures at the Pendulum Gallery on the PCOC 2007 Flickr gallery!

My library friend Yukiko Tosa is one of the conference organizers and she says that the best day to attend is Sat. Nov. 10th from 9 am -6 pm. These are origami models folded by our Conference Attendees coming from all over the world.  All these exhibits are free to the public. She has sent posters to each branch, Fine Arts and the Children's Library. 

Yukiko writes:
My favourite story right now is about Sam Thomas who is a
'Wishing Star' recipient.  The Hotel is treating him royally as they
should but you can read his mother's wonderful web update about him at:
Fish designed & folded by Joseph Wu. Photo courtesy of Joseph Wu.

Joseph Wu is an incredible origami creator who now makes a full-time living by designing and creating origami figures.  Those Stolichnaya vodka ads featuring origami
swan, eagle and butterfly were all created by Joseph.  You can view them in the
“Illustration” category of his website.  www.origami.as

Check out my 2006 story  about Joseph.  Joseph Wu, origami expert extraordinaire!

Here is a Vancouver Sun article about local origami artist, Joseph Wu Look for more press coverage to come.