St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland. The British Consulate of Vancouver held a reception to mark the occasion of the visit to Vancouver of the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, The Rt Hon George Reid MSP and to celebrate St Andrews Day. I was fortunate to recieve an invitation to this event. held at the Vancouver Club. Which kilt should I wear? The invitation said "business casual." I asked my Scottish friends, and they agreed that the Maple Leaf Tartan would be appropriate. But alas... one of our dragon boat paddlers still has it after a Kilt Night at Doolin's Irish Pub... so I wore the Ancient Fraser of Lovat tartan. It is the first kilt that I ever wore - pure wool - and perfect for a wintry Vancouver night. Definitely helped to keep my bum warm on Tuesday night when I went to the Vancouver Opera performance of Macbeth... but my knees sure were c-c-c-cold.   more »

Sid Tan sends the following - My pictures to follow soon: Highlights of this HTFSC event (November 25/06) will be on Saltwater City Television broadcast on $Shaw TV on Wednesday November 29 at 8:00pm - 9:00pm. Includes full presentation by Grace Schenkeveld, Lillian Lim, Jack Layton, Ujjal Dosanjh, Libby Davies, David Cadman and me. Also 15min. doc of the rally and information line at SUCCESS and CCC last year. Enjoy, enjoy...    more »

You've heard of the Ugly American.... Welcome to the Ugly Chinese Canadian - a new blog by my friend David Wong, a fellow multi-generational Chinese Canadian head tax descendant whose family was temporarily shut out of Canada and separated because of the Exclusion Act, after his great-grandfathers had paid the Chinese Head Tax. David and I first met in 1986, when we both became involved in the "Saltwater City" exhibition, celebrating 100 years of Chinese history in Vancouver. The Saltwater City planning committee was chaired by Paul Yee, and was soon followed by Paul's award winning book Saltwater City: an Illustrated history of Vancouver Chinatown. David was an architectural graduate at the time, who has since gone on to develop architect firms in Singapore and Vancouver, as well as gain a reputation for political insider savvy - thus qualifying him as one of Vancouver Sun's recent 100 Influential Chinese Canadians in BC.   more »

I've always thought of the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team as being on the artsy cultural side.... This weekend some of the team paddlers are planning to check out the Eastside Culture Crawl on Saturday. But on Friday night, I bumped into 2 team members + 1 team alumni. We visit two pottery studios: Gailan Pottery Studio and Kathleen Murphy's Kamu Studio. Then we visit two paint studios: Janice Wong and Arleigh Wood - wonderful art and community!   more »

East Side Culture Crawl; Los Cuatro Vientos; Head Tax Redress: Inside Outside - 1st anniversary of Nov.26th protest; Tandava for CBC Radio; NO LUCK CLUB: PROSPERITY RELEASE PARTY; Vancouver Opera - Macbeth   more »

Here's the latest from the Head Tax Families Society planning the anniversary of last year's pivotal moment when Head Tax Redress became an important election issue for the 2006 Federal election. Here's my article from last year's important event: Chinese Head Tax: Protest in Vancouver Chinatown   more »

Here's a story about the first Asian Santa Claus at Richmond Centre Mall. George King, age 73, was born in Shanghai, then lived in Taiwan where he saw his first Santa Claus hawking merchandise in department stores. Apparently there is not long tradition of Santa as a benevolent figure bearing gifts in China.Mr. King isn't really up on all the names of the reindeer, and apparently wasn't aware of Rudoph. While Santa diversity may be a good idea, cultural insensitivity or ignorance cannot be ignored. I think that in Greater Vancouver's history of Chinese born in BC since Won Alexander Cumyow in 1861 - Richmond Centre should be able to find a Canadian of Chinese descent who truly understands the important role that Santa Claus plays in the development of Canadian children.    more »

Eastside Culture Crawl Friday, November 24 5-10pm Saturday, November 25 11-6pm Sunday, November 26 11-6pm Arleigh Wood is one of the artists participating in the Eastside Culture Crawl. She combines mixed media, and also draws on her combined Japanese and Caucasian heritage. Janice Wong is another artist (and my cousin) working in the same building at 1000 Parker Street. You can bet I will be visiting them both this coming weekend during the Eastside Culture Crawl. There are 47 buildings to visit.    more »

Join the BWB crew in celebrating 2 years of global fusion madness! With guest DJ and producer Jacob Cino, electric violinist Kytami, local hip-hop/bhangra crew BPM, the United Bhangra dance crew, and BWB resident DJs. Another rocking party at the Red Room :o)   more »

Here was a white woman born in Zululand South Africa, raised in Canada as a young child, who learned from a treasured First Nations chief who was nominated for and Academy Award for his role in the movie Little Big Man, standing in Arthur Erickson designed Baldwin House on the South shore of Deer Lake. Beside her is her new husband Paul Horn, whose most famous music album is the solo flute recording Inside the Great Pyramid. And she was introduced by one of Canada's newest Order of Canada recipients - Bill Turner, executive director of The Land Conservancy of BC. Wow! How Canadian is that?   more »

Tandava is performing a concert with guests Indian vocalist Sunita and bassist Tommy Babin at 3pm on Nov 25. Canadian Memorial Centre for Peace (Burrard and 15th) free tickets, but need reservation. please call CBC at 604.662.6600 for your tickets. limited space available.   more »

This weekend the website, www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com, went out of service. My apologies. Life gets busy, and somehow I missed a renewal message. I was frustrated that I couldn't post my latest adventures or commentaries. At the same time, I am amazed at how much posting articles and maintaining this website takes over my life. My blog guru Roland Tanglao said "Your website's awesome." www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com is currently recieving 1300 to 1500 unique host visits per day. About 800 visits are directly to the main page. For the month of October the most popular categories were:   more »

It is a unique look at fifty Canadians living with, or dying from cancer. Fifty stories spread throughout the country, and throughout a single day - June 15, 2006. These stories are incredibly moving. Some are inspiring. Some are sad. I can personally relate to many of the stories that Globe & Mail writer Erin Anderssen has collected. From stories of chemotherapy treatment to being strong for friends and relatives, from tearful relapses to joyful recovery and accomplishing athletic endeavors. I lived through many of these experiences with my family and friends. These are stories that will tug your heart strings. What really comes through in the stories are the importance of partners, family and friends.I don't know what I would have done without my family and girlfriend at the time. There were times that felt very lonely. There were times when it felt good just to have company. There were times when family and friends really took their own initiatives to help. Some people could talk about it - others couldn't. The "C word" still really scared a lot of people back in 1989.   more »

It was a wonderful example of cross-cultural understanding. Alliance Francaise de Vancouver sponsored Pandit Vithal Rao and his student Kiran Ahluwalia. The show was introduced in english, then in french to the mostly South-Asian audience. The only time I heard South Asian language, was during the singing. Kiran Ahluwalia was the host for the evening. While a wonderful singer in her own right of traditional ghazal and Punjabi folk songs, as well as her own intercultural world music, Kiran was honoured to be able to present her teacher Pandit Vithal Rao. She explained that she would be telling stories about her teacher growing up and performing in India at the palace of a Prince. She also explained about the history of ghazals. It was a great experience for neophytes to Indian music such as myself.    more »

In a year following the release of CBC TV's The Greatest Canadian" and CBC Radio's "BC Almanac's Greatest British Columbians" there is a book titled: "What is a Canadian? 43 Thought -Provoking Responses. Each of these essays begins with the words “A Canadian is . . .”. Each one is very different, producing a fascinating book for all thinking Canadians..... A Canadian is a transplanted snail called James who sat down on a brick. A Canadian is a big fat street party on the Danforth in Toronto, 2004. A Canadian is hockey night in Canada on a small patch of ice created by buckets of water in the backyard. A Canadian is a plane full of people from Vancouver flying to Quebec with signs saying: “WE LOVE YOU.” A Canadian is the wind on the prairies that who has seen. And a red-headed girl in a green-gabled house on an island with red soil. And the Mounties who always always get their man. A Canadian trusts the law. And since we generally rank either second or third or fourth or whatever, we try harder. But weren’t we proud when Gorbachev said, “Look at Canada. They don’t kill people there.”    more »

Darren Aronofsky has written and directed an incredibly beautiful movie about love, death, spirituality, and eternal life beyond death. This movie ties together metaphysics, ancient Mayan beliefs and juxtaposes them against the physicalities of life and death in the early 21st Century. This movie belongs to the category of spiritual drama that inclu des What Dreams May Come, and Peaceful Warrior. Many people will not understand this movie, and simply shake their heads and mutter words like "bizarre." But life is not linear nor a monoculture.    more »

It was only a matter of time that the Vancouver Opera should set one of Europe's most famous operas smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Northwest First Nations culture. Last week, magnificently costumed opera singers performed two excerpts from Mozart's Magic Flute opera, but they were dressed in Northwest coast First Nations inspired designs. The young male bird catcher character of Papageno has now become himself a bird - a hummingbird to be precise. The Queen of the Night has become the mythic wild woman of the woods - T'sonokwa. Fantastic? Definitely. Absurd? Maybe. Cultural appropriation? Debatable...   more »

John Rutherford is a good friend of mine, and is my "official personal astrologer"... He also studies Tibetan buddhism... and is knowledgeable of many different perspectives/cultures of astrology ~~~~~~~~~`` “No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.” – P. J. O’Rourke What a bizarre week. Not so much for the weird and warped, the rethink and the double take, but for the sheer concentration of it. What a focus. It started with the fairly obvious, Britney splits with KFed on a Venus, the Lover, square Neptune, the Slippery. They were married on an opposition of the two, then had the “show” wedding with Venus opposed Uranus. Cute, but easily a no go.   more »

Alliance Française de Vancouver brings Kiran Ahluwalia and Pandit Vithal Rao to Vancouver

I have learned that the ancestry of bagpipes goes back to India... but I haven't quite learned the cross-over history of the French and Indians yet.

This announcement was sent to me from Alliance Française.  I think they heard that I speak better french than I speak Chinese....  

Kiran Ahluwalia is great!  While she specializes in traditional ghazal and Pujabie folksongs, she has also done a world music cross-over album titled "Beyond Boundaries."

I first saw her in the jazz opera Quebecite, written by George Elliot Clarke (Afro-American-MicMac First Nations Canadian) and D.D. Jackson (Afro-American-Chinese-Canadian).  Incidentally, George and D.D. are writing a new jazz opera about Pierre Trudeau!

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No Luck Club on the Road to Prosperity Hip-Hop artists tour Canada By Ben Taylor Epoch Times Vancouver Staff Nov 09, 2006 ~~~~ this is a fun interview with No Luck Club's Trevor Chan   more »

Vincent Lam wins $40,000 Giller Prize for best Canadian fiction

The top prize for English fiction goes to Vincent Lam, claiming the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize for his novel Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by, published by Doubleday Canada.  It was announced on November 7th.

The $40,000 Giller Prize is the largest annual prize for the fiction in the country, novel or short story collection published in English. $2,500 goes to each of the finalists.  In 2004. Wayson Choy was a finalist for his novel All That Matters, a sequel to his celebrated first novel "Jade Peony." 

Hmmm.... I wonder if Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop or explorASIAN will be bringing Vincent to Vancouver for a reading.  Lam is one of the non-struggling writers who is keeping his day job - as a surgeon!  ACWW and explorASIAN have presented great Asian Canadian writers such as Judy Fong Bates and Paul Yee in Vancouver.  Wayson Choy's Jade Peony was the 2002 inaugural One Book One Vancouver choice for the Vancouver Public Library program.

The other 2006 finalists were:

• Rawi Hage for his novel De Niro’s Game, published by House of Anansi Press
• Pascale Quiviger for her novel The Perfect Circle, translation by Sheila Fischman, published by Cormorant Books
• Gaétan Soucy for his novel The Immaculate Conception, translation by Lazer Lederhendler, published by House of Anansi Press
• Carol Windley for her short story collection, Home Schooling, published by Cormorant Books

Read Crawford Kilian's review of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures

Remembrance Day in Chinatown: City Councillors show respect to pioneers and veterans


Vancouver City Councillors Raymond Louie and George Chow clean bird poo off the monument prior to Remembrance Day ceremonies - photo Todd Wong

More pictures at Remembrance Day 2006

It was the biggest ceremony yet at the Chinese Pioneer monument in Vancouver Chinatown.

City of Vancouver has decided to make the Chinatown Remembrance Day an official celebration and sent wreaths from the various city departments.  This actually has forced the Pacific Unit 280 veterans to mobilize to create an official ceremony now.  The last two years have been very informal, often making things up as they went along.  It was very intimate and friendly.

On Saturday, many Chinatown organizations such as SUCCESS and Vancouver Chinatown Revitalization also showed up to place wreaths. 

A minor crisis occured prior to the ceremony, when photographers lamented that bird poo was very visible on the monument statues.  The monument is now three years old and looks like it is never cleaned.  I had earlier bumped into Parks board commissioners Loretta Woodcock and Spencer Herbert, and invited them to attend the Chinatown ceremony.  They weren't sure if Keefer Triangle was part of the parks system, but suggested sending a truck to hose down the monument. 

 
Raymond Louie, Vancouver City Councillor, cleans the helmet of the Chinese Pioneer Monument statue.  George Chow, fellow City Councillor gives some fresh napkin and pours some water on it for Louie.. - photo Todd Wong

Raymond Louie and George Chow, Vancouver City Councillors, took matters into their own hands and climbed up onto the monument to help wipe off the bird poo on the heads, helmets and body of the statues.  Kleenex and napkins were quickly rounded up and given to the councillors for the cleaning process.  Photographers quickly took advantage of seeing the councillors in action.  One person jokingly shouted out to Raymond, "Councillor, I believe there is a fine for climbing on the monument!"

The ceremony went ahead when the cleaning was finished... 

Unit Pacific 280 group photo with City Councillor Raymond Louie - Wesley Louie encourages some more military guests to join the group. - photo Todd Wong

The traditional lunch for the veterans followed at Foo's Ho Ho Restaurant.  I have joine them for the past four or five years, as I like to go and support my Grand-Uncle Dan, and the veterans.  Inevitably, somebody hands me a camer to take pictures for them.  I'm getting to know a lot of them by name.  They like Foo's Ho Ho Restaurant because it is cosy, and it specializes in the home-style Cantonese cooking that they grew up with.  As a young boy, growing up in the 1960's, my family would often go to the Ho Ho Restaurant.


Col. King Wan, John Ko Bong, Todd Wong (me) and my Grand-Uncle Daniel Lee


Christine Chin, veteran Gim Wong, Donna Green - photo Todd Wong

Gim Wong is the now 83 year old head tax redress campaigner who rode his motorcycle to Ottawa to ask then Prime Minister Paul Martin for an apology for the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act.  The Prime Minister's Office never responded to the inquiries by the Chinese Canadian National Council, sent on Gim's behalf.  Gim was invited to the July 1st (known formerly to Chinese-Canadians as Humiliation Day because the Exclusion Act was passed on July 1st, 1923) ceremonies on Parliament Hill.  When Gim stood up and started walking to where the Prime Minister was sitting, seven RCMP officers gang tackled the 82 year old WW2 veteran, and carted him off the hill. 

Since January 2007, Paul Martin is no longer Prime Minister.  But Gim Wong witnessed Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's apology for the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act on June 22nd, from the visitor's gallery in Parliament.  Gim Wong saluted the Prime Minister and several MP's saw him and saluted back.  Last month on October 20, Gim Wong fulfilled his promise to help his friend Charlie Quan, as Quan recieved the first cheque as a symbolic redress for paying the $500 Chinese Head Tax prior to 1923. 

Strangely, the Canadian born Gim Wong won't be seeing a head tax cheque for his family, because his head tax paying father and mother are predeceased.  Wong now wants Prime Minister Harper to see symbolic redress payments for all head tax certificates, not only if the payer or spouse are still alive.

More of my pictures at Remembrance Day 2006
See my friend Nick Lum's pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/24064901@N00/sets/72157594371300409/

Remembrance Day Service at Victory Square Cenotaph, Vancouver BC.


Lots of Army, Airforce, Navy, cadet, veteran and even RCMP uniforms at Victory Square, Vancouver BC along Hastings and Cambie streets, stand at attention. - photo Todd Wong

The rain held off for the Remembrance Day ceremony at Victory Square, Vancouver BC.  With the war in Afghanistan, there is special significance… but for the Chinese-Canadian veterans there is a very special significance because of the head tax apology by Prime Minister Harper and the government of Canada.  For many many years, the veterans asked for an apology for the head tax, without a response.  Each year they saw their numbers dwindling, as more of the veterans passed on.

But in the "Year of the Veteran," they wrangled an "acknowledgement" and community funding from the Liberal government.  Although there was no "apology" or "head tax refund," this subsequently turned into an election issue, and the newly elected Conservative government promised an apology for the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act.


The Chinese Canadian veterans of Pacific Unit 280 are lead by past president Ed Lee.  92 year old John Ko Bong walks with a cane now. Alex Louie (with beige sweater and 6th from left) was featured in the film documentary "Unwanted Soldiers," about how Canada originally did not want to have Canadian born Chinese as soldiers.  - photo Nick Lum

Rememberance Day services are always special for the Chinese-Canadian veterans because by enlisting and serving for Canada, they helped to ensure that Canadians born of Chinese descent had the right and enfranchisement to vote.  This was given in 1947, the same year that the Chinese "Exclusion Act" was repealed.  I have 4 grand uncles and one uncle that served in WW2.  All returned to Canada safely.  My maternal grandmother's younger brothers Daniel, Howard and Leonard Lee, plus their cousin Victor Wong, are all grandsons of Rev. Chan Yu Tan, who came to Canada in 1896.  My father's elder brother James Wong also served, and was sent to the Pacific Theatre.  Their father Wong Wah arrived in Canada in 1882.


Here are close ups of 92 year old John Ko Bong, and Ed Lee of Pacific Unit 280. They are good friends of my grand-uncle Daniel Lee, currently president for PU 280. - photo Nick Lum. 

But this year, I also knew many more ceremony participants.  Cameron Cathcart is chair of the 2006 Rememberance Day Observance Committee, and was also commentator for the event. Andre Greenwood or the Vancouver Fire Department Band sang “Land of Hope and Glory.”   A wreath was laid by the Canadian Club Vancouver president Dr. Jean Watters and vice-president Renee Popov.  It was just last Friday Nov. 3rd when we celebrated the Canadian Club Vancouver’s 100th Anniversary at the Westin Bayshore, with Cam Cathcart presideing as MC, with the first public presentation of the Richardson Bagpipes.


This year the Canadian Club of Vancouver laid a wreath to acknowledge it's 100th anniversary.  CC member Cam Cathcart chaired and commentated the Victory Square ceremonies - photo Todd Wong


Seaforth Highlanders posed with Christine Chin and Todd Wong.  Of course, we invited these two fine men in kilts to our "Kilts Night" events at Doolin's - photo Sean for Todd

While the ceremony can be sombre and thoughful, there is much pageantry with the pipes and drums of the many participating organizations.  After the official ceremonies, we examined the wreaths that had been laid, and we wathced the regiments march out.  We even discovered a bagpiper of Asian descent.... playing in the BC regiment of Irish Pipes and Drums.  Hmmm.... maybe we will have to invite him to Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner.


Look!  Chinese (or Asian) bagpiper! - photo Todd Wong

For more pictures taken by my friend Nick Lum
see http://www.flickr.com/photos/24064901@N00/sets/72157594371337538/

Play about British internees in Japanese POW camp finds humanity in the middle of WW2

Gonzo
written and directed by Gordon Pascoe
November 1-12, 2006
Norman Rothstein Theatre

World War II was a terrible time in history.  Our Canadian perspective is torn between the wars in Europe and Pacific.  But WW2 was also fought  in Asia, Northern Africa, the Australasia archipelago, the Alaskan Islands.  It was the first war where non-combat citizens were devastatingly affected - from the rape of Naking by Japanese soldiers, the Nazi concentration camps of ethnic European Jews, the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the USA, and the massive internment of ethnic Japanese descendants in both Canada and the USA.

British internees are housed in a Japanese prison of war camp in Shanghai, China, and cared for a Japanese soldier named Gonzo.  Written and directed by Gordon Pascoe, who grew up in the Ash prison of war camp in Shanghai.  This play was based on his memories of actual events. 

It is a lovely play that celebrates human kindness amongst the horrific circumstances of WW2.  Pascoe finds a way to intertwine the evacuation of Jews from Europe to China, the internment of Japanese-Canadians in British Columbia, the pivotal war battles in Africa, Europe and the Pacific into the tiny confines of a camp housing British women and children.

The play opens with an elderly man saluting a Remembrance Day service.  Next we see him hooked up to an IV tube, after surviving a heart health crisis.  He states that he must tell a story that he should have told a long time ago.  The events of this play are based on the true life accounts of writer/director Gordon Pascoe, as he grew up in the Ash Camp in Shanghai.

Now the play's real action begins, as young mother Evelyn Pascoe and young son Gordon arrive at Hut D, at Ash camp.  They soon meet other camp residents who inspect the belongings that they have brought with them.  Basic requirements are sparse, and the mirror that Eveleyn has brought is treated as precious.  Evelyn is in dispair at the tiny one-room hut that she has been assigned to.  She soon learns from the others that while conditions are tough, they are thankful of the Japanese soldier nicknamed "Gonzo" that cares for them.

Throughout the play, the audience learns what the residents must do to survive through the internment.  They scrounge and trade for food.  They put on Gilbert & Sullivan light opera to raise morale.  They intereact with other women, mothers and children.  They even befriend the Japanese Camp guard named Gonzo.  He shows them pictures of his wife and daughter, back home in Nagasaki, where he used to be a school teacher.  This segment emphasisizes the commonalities and family values that all cultures share, while only the audience really knows that Nagasaki will eventually be the victim of an atomic bomb.

The children play games, and even mimic playing camp commandant, making fun of the Japanese commandant's penchant for Japanese propaganda.  The camp residents have secretly managed to build a wireless radio, so they are already knowledgable about what is actually happening during the war's events.  They hear about the liberation of Paris, and the battle of Midway.

The play's darkest moments come when some of the women are allowed to visit their husbands at a Men-Only work camp.  Allusions are made to the terrible conditions, poor food, and extremely hard physical labour that the men must endure.  The actors do a nice job of sharing the stories, and convey the hardships.  But somehow all the costumes look a bit too clean, and the set is still too nice to be a horrible prison of war camp. But for the melodrama and the Pollyannish presentations, this play touches the heart, as it recreates and imagines the emotions that the characters must go through. 

Gonzo is soon re-nicknamed "Robert Taylor" because of his kind acts, and good features.  Actor Simon Hayama does a good job demonstrating the caringness that Gonzo treats his charges.  He plays with the children, gives them treats and learns to speak English from them.

Despite being set during a terrible time in WW2, Pascoe has incredibly weaved together the elements that we value as human beings: Compassion and Love.  Yes, there is war and death in this play.  It is unavoidable for WW2 subject matter.   He takes the Big World issues of internment, and the evacuation of Jews, and contrasts them with the Little Word issues of surviving in a prison of war camp, on a day to day basis.  We can understand the fear that mother Evelyn Pascoe has when young Gordon goes missing at camp one day.  We can feel the pathos, when camp matron Geraldine Conway-Smythe learns that her husband has died.  We recognize that war was... and is terrible.... that terrible things happen.  And because of it, we are more grateful when humane deeds are revealed against this setting.

Trevor Chan and the No Luck Club created a hip hop / mash up, titled "Our Story" that addresses the head tax issue, using actual historic sound bites that were racist descriptions about keeping Canada "White" and about the threat of the "Yellow Peril." It is the 2006 equivalent version of a protest song. Earlier this year on January 14, I wrote about their musical/oratoria montage: "Our Story" head tax sound bites and turn table hip hop by No Luck Club Now the Globe & Mail is writing about them, as they invade Toronto, bringing the head tax issue to the ears of Toronto's hip hop and just plain head tax hip culture.Head-Tax Hip Hop Special to the Globe and Mail November 3, 2006 'We don't want Chinamen in Canada. This is a white man's country and white men will keep it so." The speaker's voice, sampled from our not-so-distant past, is but one of many shocking historic sound bites that Vancouver instrumental hip-hop trio No Luck Club spread throughout the cinematic beatscape of Our Story on their just-released album Prosperity.    more »

Jeff Chiba Stearns LIVE on MTV Canada starting Nov. 9th

Jeff Chiba Stearns, film animator and creator of "What Are You Anyways?", will be appearing on MTV Canada on Nov. 9th, Thursday 3:30pm PST, or  6:30pm EST.

Jeff recently won the inaugural award for Best Animated Short for the first annual Canadian Awards for Electronic and Animated Arts (CAEAA).  We recently chatted when we bumped into each other at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival on last Saturday morning.

http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2006/9/18/2338517.html

Here is Jeff's message:

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I will be in Toronto appearing live as a guest on MTV Canada's show MTV LIVE this Thursday, Nov. 9th. 

I will be discussing mixed-race and Hapa identity with a possible focus on my animated film, "What Are You Anyways?"  The inteview, which will be around 3-5 minutes, airs nationally on MTV Canada at 3:30pm in the west and 6:30pm in the east this Thursday.  The show is an hour long and I will appear sometime within that hour.  The episode I am on is repeated countless times throughout the night and on the weekend.  If you miss the first broadcast it will broadcast again later.  The show's topic is "Mash-ups" and if you're interested check it out. 

Now, I just hope I don't get cut by some rapper.