We will go on a pub crawl reciting poetry to (un)suspecting patrons starting at Doolin's Irish Pub at 5:30pm. Then we will go to Atlantic Trap and Gill for 6:05. Johnny Fox's Irish Snug at 6:45. Then the finale at Ceili's Irish Pub and Restaurant for 8pm, where we will be accompanied by a DJ and a celtic fiddler..... Not being a complete expert or scholar on Robert Burns, I asked my friends in the Burns Club of Vancouver, as well as Ron MacLeod, Chair of the Scottish Cultural Studies program at Simon Fraser University for advice. They readily obliged:   more »

The word is out.  Scotland's favorite poet son, will be represented in Vancouver CelticFest's Battle of the Bards by 5th generation Chinese Canadian Todd Wong aka Toddish McWong - creator of Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner, and other intercultural events.



Wong first participated in Celtic Fest's first St. Patrick's Day parade, when he put a Taiwanese dragon boat on a trailer and towed it down the street in the parade.  Seated in the boat were bagpiper Joe McDonald, and guitarist Andrew Kim, the Brave Waves.


Both McDonald and Kim were also featured in the CBC Vancouver television performance special Gung Haggis Fat Choy - another spin off from the Todd Wong creative braintrust.

View Clip

Check out official CelticFest promotional blurbs from event organizer and poet Stephen Duncan
http://www.poetryradio.blogspot.com/


Click on the image below for more details.

We saw Grace Chin's new play "The Quickie" on Friday night.  Two words quickly came to mind - "Very Vancouver."
Two people drag their friends to a Speed Dating event, meet new people, have a follow-up date, then let the sparks and fur fly when they ask their friends to tag along on a double date.

It is a witty comedy play that had the audience talking about it during the intermission, and even making the "awwww" sound when one of the characters was rejected. 

Playwright Grace has captured the diversity of even the Vancouver's Asian population, incorporating Maylaysian Chinese, Korean, South Asian and Cantonese Chinese origins, as well as Irish-Italian, and Hong Kong origins.  Accents blend into the action, and you don't notice them as none of the four lead performers speak with accents.

Inter-ethnic dating is a topic discussion.  Do we or don't we?  It was funny, because my girlfriend and I were sitting with friends, and we were both inter-ethnic couples.  So very Vancouver, in Canada's capital of inter-ethnic relationships.

Check out http://www.scriptingaloud.ca/quickie/

More later....

Theatre review: Banana Boys jabs and pokes fun at Asian-Canadian inferiority complex... 

Banana Boys
Firehall Arts Centre
directed by Donna Spencer
until February 9th.

Bananas are everywhere in Canada.  They are the Canadianized Asians that are yellow on the outside and white on the inside.  Terry Woo wrote the novel, and Leon Aureas turned it into the play being performed at the Firehall Arts Centre.

Everybody knows a Banana.  They straddle in between the Mother tongue culture trying to distance themselves from the FOB (Fresh Off the Boat) new immigrants who still speak with an accent, and they don't quite fit in with the Mainstream White-Canadian dominant culture - because everywhere they go, people still refer to them as Chinese because of their skin colour.

In a negative perspective, Bananas are sometimes accused of denying their racial and cultural heritage, by trying to be mainstream.  Former Governor General of Canada, Adrienne Clarkson, could be considered a Banana, even though she was born in Hong Kong and came to Canada at age three.  She doesn't even use her maiden name Poy anymore, keeping the name of her ex-husband political scientist Stephen Clarkson.

In a positive perspective, Bananas emphasize Canadian values, and the integration (or assimilation) of Chinese culture into becoming good Canadians of Chinese ancestry.  My friend David Wong calls himself a Banana, and like myself, is proud of his multigenerational Chinese-Canadian pioneer ancestry.

But in both the book and play, Banana Boys are college friends at the University of Waterloo.  They are called losers by one of their girlfriends.  And the most successful of them, is at odds with trying to distance himself from them and fit into the rising corporate class of new Chinese-Canadian immigrants.  They are 5 friends that each  represent many of the Asian-Canadian male stereotypes: unassertive romantically delusioned male, family values dominated number one son that goes to medical school, computer/math/tech geek, commerce faculty BMW or Accura Integra driving Chuppie (Chinese yuppie).

What is wrong with being a Banana?

Nothing... and everything!

The play opens with the 5 friends declaring their friendship in a prologue.  The real action starts when we discover that main character Rick Wong (Victor Mariano) has died by self-impalement of a piece of mirror into his heart.  The rest of the play explores each of the character's relationship to their "Banana-ness" and how they relate to each other.  Simon Hayakawa plays Michael Chow, the medical student who is in charge of documenting Rick Wong's life, struggling between following his bliss of becoming a writer or his family expectations of becoming a doctor.

It is a manic romp through many issues of being Asian-Canadian such as: dating white women or Chinese Women; following parental expectations for academic achievement; facing racial discrimination and cultural stereotypes; and trying to blend in with the mainstream or immigrant cultures.  Simon Hayama, Victor Mariano, Parnelli Parnes, and Vincent Tong, are all back for this return engagement after closing the 2007 Western Canada premiere with sold out shows.

The first act is fast paced with some brilliantly insightful and funny scenes. A scene addressing why Banana Boys are at the bottom of the relationship desirability ladder, begins as a mock battle scene with the boys playing soldiers fighting with machine guns, but transitions into a description of Venn diagrams explaining the intersections of Asian women with White men, but not White women or Asian women with Banana Boys.  It's a hilarious tribute to the mathematical geek stereotype of Asian males.

But this play goes beyond mere racial issues, it also tackles the tough issues of identity, drug addiction, friendship and learning to love oneself. 

Kudo's to Firehall Arts Centre for premiering this wonderful play to the West Coast, and having the strong belief in it to re-launch it a year later, in the wake of Firehall's remount of Urine Town.  Director Donna Spencer has tightened up the production, and the actors seem much more comfortable with the material.  The actors are all  amazing, as this play pushes them to over the top performances that exaggerate the issues to extremes.  Highlights include two of the actors dressing up with blonde wigs, as go-go dancing game show hostesses with Chinese accents, or dressed up in a big Sumo Wrestler outfit as Michael Chow's mother wrestling his personal ambitions against family expectations.  Metaphor is big in this play, and it hits you with big outrageous scenes and imagery.

When the play premiered last year, Terry Woo the Banana Boys author, came out for the opening and was happily amazed by the production.  The play had originally been workshopped in Toronto, but still translated well to Vancouver.  While the original material was written with a Chinese-Canadian specific culture in mind,
the actors come from a diverse Asian ancestry including Filipino, Chinese, Japanese and Hapa-Canadian.  The issues are universal enough to relate to all Asian-Canadian and Canadian immigrant community groups.

I was amazed by all the pop-cultural references and Asian Banana Boy cultural specifics such as dragon boat racing, driving Acura Integras, and drinking Coca-cola - which I do personally in my life.  As a 5th generational Chinese Canadian, am I that much of a Banana Boy?  Or are some of these issues relatable to all Canadians?  Judging from the laughter in the audience, lots of people, White or Asian, were enjoying the play.

It's Chinese New Year week....

here are some FUN events this week.... after recovery from Gung Haggis Fat Choy Chinese Robbie Burns Dinner recovery....

Tuesday February 5, 2008 - 6:00 PM

CITY COOKS with Simi Sara

Channel 13 in Metro Vancouver
Our cooking dragon boat chef Dan Seto (Chinese Canadian Historical Society of B.C.)

1. Lotus Root Soup
2. Steamed Pork with Salt Fish
3. Green Beans with Fooyi Bean Cake

Check out
TUESDAY to Saturday FEB 5 - 9th
BANANA BOYS
Firehall Theatre
The fun play by Leon Aureas, based on the Terry Woo novel
Back from a hit run last year... manic comedy and Asian identity... or Asian confusion.

THURSDAY Feb 7
CHINESE NEW YEAR DAY
- Kilts Night at Doolin's Irish Pub
FREE pint of Guinness if you wear a kilt.
8:00pm - Raphael to greet you.
Hockey game starts a 7:00 pm - expect music by Halifax Wharf Rats to begin afterwards around 9:30

FRIDAY Feb 7 - 16
THE QUICKIE
- Playwrights theatre centre on Granville Island
- this is the play excerpted at Gung Haggis dinner
- this is by the same group that did Twisting Fortunes last year

purchase tickets online via PayPal at www.scriptingaloud.ca/quickie.
but see them:

Friday, February 15 concert of DEAD Serious 
7:30 p.m. at Vancouver Memorial Services and Crematorium / Hamilton-Harron Funeral 
Home, 5390 Fraser Street) will TAKE PLACE AS SCHEDULED.  
If you would like to make reservations, 
please call 604-325-7441.

Italian Girl in Algiers
Vancouver Opera
Queen Elizabeth Theatre
January 26, 29. 31 and February 2nd 2008

An Italian girl in a Muslim harem?  A Korean soprano wife singing in Italian to her German-Canadian bass husband?  Opera is so very multicultural, and Vancouver Opera's new production of Rossini's "Italian Girl in Algiers" is a delight!

Can you imagine anything crazier than one of the opera's stars, Randall Jakobsh playing Mustafa, dancing around "naked" behind a towel, or being "powdered" by his servants while singing to a beautiful Rossini score?

I have always loved Rossini's music.  Many generations have grown up identifying Rossini's "William Tell Overture" as "The Lone Ranger Theme" - the musicality burned into our brains.  The Italian Girl in Algiers also has many memorable passages that dusted off my early memories of listening to one of the essential classical music collections - Rossini Overtures.

Vancouver Opera's new production of "Italian Girl In Algiers" originally presented in 1813, is now set during the roaring '20's, a time of mad-cap comedy described as Emily Earhart meets the Marx Brothers.  This sets the stage for the audience to accept the absurd comedic plots and situations that are to come, and all accompanied by a gorgeous Rossini musical score.

Now imagine sitting in the audience, when a 1920's bi-plane flies over your head, then sputters, crash landing on stage of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.  It actually happens... and the audience claps enthusiastically!

The opera opens with a super huge gigantic book on stage, that opens up to reveal the set design - the palace of the Governor of Algiers.  Just like a bedtime story,  the message is this: don't take this opera seriously... sit back and enjoy the story.

The Governor Mustafa has grown tired of  his wife Elvira, and thinks that an exotic Italian girl will bring him happiness.  He decides to send his wife off with Lindoro, an Italian slave at his court captured only 3 months earlier by Mustafa's pirates.  Suddenly, an airplane crashes, Isabella is looking for her lost love Lindoro.  The pirates take this "Italian Girl" to Mustafa who is instantly infatuated with Isabella, who is shocked to see her beloved Lindoro, who is supposedly being married off to Elvira, who is still in love with Mustafa. This is a comedy of love infatuations and a battle of the sexes begins.  Oh... and then there is Taddeo, the would-be Italian suitor of Isabella, during Lindor's absence. He accompanied Isabella in her search for Lindoro... what a stand up guy! Not!

Soprano Sandra Piques Eddy is perfect as a Katherine Hepburnish, pants wearing, independent woman named Isabella looking for her lost love Lindora, played by lyric tenor John Tessier, who was captured by pirates. Their voices are wonderful.  But despite this ensemble cast, Eddy clearly shines the brightest, as she loves her role as an Isabella who can tame men with a look or a wave.

Randall Jakobsh plays Mustafa, the governor of Algiers, who is instantly smitten by the vivaciously exotic Isabella. This is his debut performance with the Vancouver Opera, and his first appearance as Mustafa.  It's a perfect fit, and expect Jakobsh to be getting calls from around the world for this Rossini play as he brings so much life into a this hilarious role.

Sookhyung Park, plays Elvira the Governor's wife that he is handing her over to Lindora, to make way for this new "Italian Girl" to be added to his harem.  The Korean born Park, balances both her anger and love for Mustafa, and learns from Isabella what it takes to properly "train a husband."

Rounding out the cast is Hugh Russell as Taddeo, who brings additional comic relief.  Mustafa wants to impress Isabella, and so he names Taddeo as Grand Kaimakan (a lieutenant position amongst his followers).  Taddeo meanwhile does everything he can to thwart Mustafa's advances on Isabella.

But who is Randall Jakobsh, and why should BC opera goers be proud of him?

Imagine a younger, sexier, slimmer Ben Heppner singing Bass - and born and rasied in Vernon BC.  This is Randall.

If there ever was a role made for Randall Jakobsh to demonstrate his abilities, this might be it.  It allows Randall to be charming and sexy, but this also pushes him in his first bufo-comedy role.  He shared with me that this is the hardest role he has ever done, and he was quite anxious about his Vancouver Opera debut when I talked with him on Boxing Day in Vernon. 

But after watching Jakobsh on stage in not much more than a "towel" while singing in a "bath" while the audience laughed at the unexpected rubber ducky, we can all be assured that Randall's star is rising.  He was calm, and looked to be having fun in his role, even when not singing.  He asked what we thought of his "dancing bear" as he hammed it up on stage singing about his infatuation with the Italian Girl, while his slaves powdered him and washed him "behind the towel."  I had to laugh because when Randall had come over to the house to visit in Vernon, it had been us sitting in the hot tub, and inviting him to come join us.

Poet George McWhirter was amazed. Media columnist Catherine Barr was in awe! Film maker Ann Marie Fleming had smiles on her face! Blackthorn flautist Michelle Carlisle loved it! We went to Floata to test-taste the 2008 Gung Haggis Fat Choy menu. We started with a deep-fried haggis/shrimp wun tun, shrimp-filled haw-gow, haggis/pork su-mei, and vegetarian spring rolls... that was our appetizer. Sukhi Ghuman arrived with her cameraman Zak to shoot an interview and help taste-test some food for an upcoming episode of The Express on Shaw TV. "The Express is a lifestyle magazine program that brings you an in-depth look at the fascinating people, events, recreation and attractions from Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley." Sukhi asked me about the origins of Gung Haggis Fat Choy, and how I came to create this cultural fusion event that blends Chinese and Scottish traditions. ~~~~~~~~~~ WHAT? VACT’S FUN-RAISER WHEN? Saturday, January 26, 2008, @ 7:30pm WHERE? Norman Rothstein Theatre, 950 West 41st Avenue (at Oak), Vancouver .    more »

Rachel Corrie was 23 years old when she was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer on March 16, 2003. She was working with others trying to protect the home of a Palestinian pharmacist from demolition in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Palestine. “My Name is Rachel Corrie” is a powerful.... Adrienne Wong is playing Rachel Corrie in the Push Festival's "My Name is Rachel Corrie." Wong was also similarly driven by her passion to play the young activist. Read the article: Hour.ca - Stage - My Name Is Rachel Corrie to learn about Wong's unusual audition for the role.   more »

Banana Boys
Firehall Arts Centre
January 17 - February 9 , 2008

Another Gung Haggis Fat Choy exclusive!!!

TF Productions' playwright Grace Chin is back with another "set in Vancouver" play that resonates sexual and racial intercultural politics and social customs.   Last year  Grace and her writing partner Charlie Cho previewed their first play Twisting Fortunes at the 2007 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner which I reviewed Twisting Fortunes is just like "real dating.

This time the writing is all Grace... and she will be performing a sneak preview excerpt onstage with fellow actor Emily Chow, as characters Susan Fan and Regina Cho.

What do women really want?  Did Robbie Burns have the answer?  We know that Robbie Burns LOVED the fair sex and wrote many many poems dedicated to them - the most famous being "My Luv is Like a Red Red Rose."  But does a rose smell as sweet whether it is red, or white, or yellow?  And what about men and women.... do they smell as sweet whether they are white or yellow? 

Check out this spicy excerpt that will be presented January 27th at the 2008 Gung Haggis Fat Choy : Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner.

This Canadian classic theatre work is still strong and disturbing. Remounted on its 40th Anniversary for the Firehall Arts Centre’s 25th Anniversary, this production of The Ecstasy of Rita Joe stuns audiences with not only the power of its story and acting - but now with the resonance of history’s truths and tragedy. Playwright George Ryga’s words are still haunting and critical 20 years after his death in 1987.... Firehall Arts Centre artistic director Donna Spencer has assembled a stellar cast, and directed the production herself, as well as playing the role of school teacher... But the Firehall Arts Centre's production is a worthy contender.    more »

The Ecstasy of Rita Joe is one of Canada's most important works according to the Literary Review of Canada's 100: Canada's Most Important Books. Here is the press release for Ecstasy of Rita Joe, produced by Firehall Arts Centre   more »