Friday, April 25, 2008

Drumline Battle Answer #11 - Big Trouble In Little China

Here's another one of those films that I just can't get enough of for whatever reason. Kurt Russell is so smug with his quotes. Plus you get to see Kim Cattrall back in her Pre-Sex in the City days and back into her Mannequin days. When I saw this in my youthful days, I had no idea how it was just a taste of what I would eventually see at those Thursday Hong Kong film nights.


Thursday, April 24, 2008

"You Bring Out the Asian American in Me"


So the great thing about being sick is that I have opportunity to catch up on mundane things like the newspaper and email. So here's the first thing I received and gave me something to smile about...

1. The Giants are hosting their first Filipino night... I'm not getting a ticket because I have one anyways with my season tickets, but those of you who want a collectible T-shirt should go.

Filipino Heritage Night
Wednesday, May 14 - Filipino families and businesses are recognized and welcomed for the
1st annual Filipino Heritage Night at AT&T Park! Be one of the founding fans to attend this new heritage night by coming out to support your culture, your heritage and your San Francisco Giants as they take on the Houston Astros.
Learn more and purchase tickets »


2. Then I read this article on the front of Wednesday's Datebook. It just made me wonder about the status of Asian Americans in all aspects of our society. At today's track meet, a couple of the athletes and I got into an interesting discussion about how hard it is or isn't for Chinese Americans to get into Berkeley. This talk was prompted by the fact our school has been promoting College Awareness Week--complete with speakers from different schools and organizations talking about a variety of topics (financial aid was today's focus).

Goodbye yellowface, hello whiteout?

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Paul Muni and Luise Rainer played the lead Chinese charac... Jim Sturgess plays Ben Campbell (not Jeff Ma) in "21." So... Anna May Wong - not good enough for "The Good Earth?" Pho...

Asian American Actors

In Hollywood


Goodbye yellowface, hello whiteout? (4/23)

Paul Muni and Luise Rainer made a very unlikely Chinese peasant couple in "The Good Earth." But that was 1937 Hollywood. Today, it's hard to imagine, say, Charlize Theron wearing yellowface. Yet there's a different problem. In "21," based on an MIT professor teaching his students to beat the odds in Las Vegas casinos, Jim Sturgess ("Across the Universe") is star

student Ben Campbell. The real-life Campbell was an Asian American named Jeff Ma.

Goodbye yellowface, hello whiteout?

Phil Lee, president of Media Action Network for Asian Americans, thinks so. As soon as word got around of the switcheroo, MANAA contacted Sony. But the group says it was rebuffed. Asian hits like "The Ring" and "Infernal Affairs" are routinely Americanized. "But '21' was based on a true story involving a number of Asian Americans," says Lee by phone. "It was a lost opportunity, especially given the lack of strong Asian roles."

More of the same?

For MANAA, it was a sense of deja vu. In the 1970s, pioneering Korean journalist K.W. Lee wrote more than 120 articles that helped free a young Korean American wrongly accused of a gangland murder. That story inspired the 1989 movie "True Believer." But who got to play the heroic crusader? James Woods.

"While '21' is inspired by a true story, the film is fictionalized," stresses Steve Elzer, Sony's senior vice president for media relations. He points out that there are two Asian Americans in the five-member ensemble. "They are prominently featured in the motion picture and they also appear in the trailers, on the posters, billboards," Elzer says in an e-mail. He adds that as a consultant to "21," Ma himself "has vigorously supported the producers' casting choices."

Not everyone buys the colorblind "it's about the best actor for the role" argument. "Are you kidding me? A movie about math, MIT and gambling, and the lead was made white? Have you ever seen the pai gow tables in Vegas?" exclaims Manish on the blog Ultrabrown. "... You can just imagine the studio meeting: 'Asian won't sell. If you want the movie made, we have to re-cast the leads.' "

"This is pretty outrageous, and just as questionable as having Brian Dennehy play Kublai Khan in (Hallmark's) recent 'Marco Polo' movie," writes Alvin on the Hypen Magazine blog.

A two-way street?

But shouldn't colorblindness cut both ways? If Asian Americans want to play Hamlet (Joan Chen's role in "Twin Peaks" was written for an Italian), shouldn't Sturgess have a shot at "21"?

"There are a limited number of Asian roles and plenty of hungry actors," says Arthur Dong, director of the new documentary "Hollywood Chinese." "When a non-Asian gets an Asian role, it's a slap in the face." And when Nicolas Cage parodies Fu Manchu in "Grindhouse" in 2007, it stings even more. "Sure it's satire, that's the excuse," says Dong. "But would anyone dare do that with Amos and Andy?"

Stephen Gong, executive director of the Center for Asian American Media, says stories like "21" don't really surprise him. "Films are constructed to make money," Gong says by phone. "I'm

sure the producers were more interested in making a film about cheating Las Vegas rather than the subtleties of the Asian American experience."

But where does that leave Asian American actors?

"I'm working, but not much in Hollywood," says Chen, though she sees more roles around than when she started 25 years ago. Then she was offered plenty of "cartoonish chop-chop action movies." "I turned those down," Chen says by phone. "But I regret it a little now. I thought they were mindless, but they were not meant to be serious. I was being too serious."

Something to prove

"As an ethnic actor, you have to work a million times harder than anyone else just to get your foot in the door," says Kal Penn in a phone conversation. Penn balked at playing a character named Taj Mahal in "National Lampoon's Van Wilder." He vividly remembers how schoolmates in New Jersey avoided him at lunch after seeing Indians wolfing monkey brains in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." But a friend advised him to find a dozen cliched scenes he just couldn't stomach and suggest alternatives instead of rejecting National Lampoon. That film

eventually helped him land "Harold & Kumar" and "The Namesake."

In 2008, Sony can say that if there were an Asian American actor with the box-office buzz of Sturgess, Ben Campbell could have stayed Asian. That sounds like the same argument as when Rainer was chosen over Anna May Wong for "The Good Earth."

Dong says it's possible that 1930s Asian American stars like Wong didn't yet have the dramatic chops for a role like "The Good Earth." "But you can argue that she was never given the chance to nurture that talent," he says. "It's a classic catch-22." After all, says Center for Asian American Media's Gong, "I'm sure John Cho could have done '21' in his sleep."

Sidelined in Hollywood, many Asian American actors are eyeing the global market. Bay Area native Daniel Wu is an A-lister in Hong Kong. "He could be the next Jackie Chan," Gong says. "He can speak Mandarin, Cantonese, knows martial arts." And he doesn't have to worry about an accent.

Wu isn't alone. Hawaii native Maggie Q made it in Hong Kong before starring in "Live Free or Die Hard." Lee-Hom Wan of "Lust Caution" was born in Rochester, N.Y.

Asian American actors, once the stepchildren of both Hollywood and Asia, are becoming

"bankable" for American productions by pursuing a career in Asia first, writes the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival's Taro Goto. Others like B.D. Wong, Sandra Oh, Vic Chao are popping up regularly on television.

Variety

"It's not just about positive roles, it's about more variety," says Lee of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans. That's where he feels "21" missed the boat. But Dong says he worries more about films like "Juno" than "21." In that indie hit, an Asian is shown picketing an

abortion clinic. "She has an accent, I think she's the only Asian in the film, and as I watched it, I thought, 'When that film shows in the Midwest, I'd hate to be the only Asian student in the auditorium,' " says Dong. "That really perpetuates the otherness of Asians. You make sure they are still seen as outsiders."

Video clips

Here are Web sites for video excerpts of some of the movies mentioned in this article:

The Good Earth: links.sfgate.com/ZDDE

21: links.sfgate.com/ZDDF

True Believer: links.sfgate.com/ZDDG

Infernal Affairs: links.sfgate.com/ZDDH

Hollywood Chinese: links.sfgate.com/ZDDI

Lust Caution: links.sfgate.com/ZDDJ

E-mail Sandip Roy at datebook@sfchronicle.com.

extra article link on John Cho in the same paper


John Cho rises to the top, with Harold's help (4/23)



if you are more curious on the topic, you should check out the documentary Slanted Screen.



Wednesday, April 23, 2008

El Camino HS Night with the Giants



El Camino HS Night with the Giants

Support our community's future by watching the Giants future



Event InfoName:
El Camino HS Night with the Giants

Tagline:
Support our community's future by watching the Giants future

Host:
Derek Padilla

Type:
Sports - Sporting Event
Time and PlaceDate:
Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Time:
7:10pm - 10:10pm

Location:
AT&T Park

Street:
24 Willie Mays Plaza

City/Town:
San Francisco, CA

Description
This is our annual fundraiser with the San Francisco Giants, who will be playing the Housto Astros that night. Tickets are $20 and 7 or 8 of that goes directly back to the school. Please consider helping us, particularly with the 10% cut in educational funding that will happen next year.

Our district band will be doing the National Anthem, while the jazz band plays in Willie Mays Plaza around 5pm. If you're interested, please contact me. My work email is dpadilla@ssfusd.org

The tickets are situated in the upper reserve along the 3rd base line. Sections 319-322, I believe.

Hope to see you all there. Go Giants! Support the future... the Giants young players and our young high school students.

Please pass this on to anyone interested.

If you look carefully, you will see our seats in the pictures.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Drumline Battle #10 - Airplane!

Today was one of those just wanna getaway days...
I've been feeling crappy, exhausted, coughing, congested, so I took time off to recover. Maybe there is some truth in this idea that I work too much... maybe...

All I could think today is that I wish I were on a plane to somewhere exotic and summer vacation had already begun... therefore, this entry is AIRPLANE!

I suppose this film has a lot to do with why I didn't take my first plane ride until I was 20 years old... and it was a 2 part flight... the first 11 hours brought me to Taiwan, where we got to stay overnight... and then the next morning we spent a couple of hours getting to Manila... which deserves a whole chapter in and of itself...

Also, this is one of my favorite comedies. I don't see on cable so much anymore. It used to be on all the time, hmmm.... I like how you can tell what era it's from. It may feel dated to my students, but it brings back memories for me.

Presidential Birthdays

Today should be a holiday for me... and who knows, maybe it will be?

Happy Birthday to two former ASB Presidents...
Serena Ip
Cesar Rodriguez

What are the odds of that happening? It's not like I've been teaching that long.

Of course, this is coming from someone who shared a birthday with a girlfriend before... ahhh... give thanks!

Political Comedy

All I know is that the lead story this whole weekend on the local news is that the gas in San Francisco is over $4 at 15 locations with the most expensive being $4.29 in South San Francisco by the airport.

I am still an undecided voter, whose opinion makes no difference now that the primary in California has passed; however, I want the candidate who will fix education, health care, and gas prices. Though I do like the fact that the habits of people are slowly changing. I was talking with a man in line for food at Costco and we both wondered if there would be any price that people would not pay and force them to practically eliminate driving except for urgent situations. He says $5 will cause a drastic drop. I wonder if $10 will even make people stop.

Anyways, this is supposed to be about comedy in politics. I'm finally catching up on my old Entertainment Weekly issues and over a month ago was this cover and article...





I have to admit that the political humor of SNL upon its return from the writer's strike had me laughing. I liked the attitude of favoring Obama and Clinton being made to look in astonishment. Better yet, Tina Fey had a great retort for all the Obama love and spoke up for Hillary.

First of all thanks to Hulu.com for hosting NBC video (the commercials are a necessary evil).




And what better counterpoint argument could there be but Tracy Morgan showing up the following week.




And just for the heck of it... Hillary's appearance on SNL...

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Drumline Battle #9 - I cross the line/Tombstone

This entry will upset my brother because it should be his entry in the battle. Tombstone is one of his favorite movies of all time and I found a compilation montage of Doc Holliday scenes. This is probably one of my favorite quotable films.





Enjoy Lance!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Ides of April

So today should be all doom and gloom... taxes are due... almost sounds like the Ides of March...
and it start off great... the Giants did recognize the actual 50th anniversary of the first major league baseball game on the West Coast... but unlike that game in which the Giants beat the Dodgers 8-0 against Don Drysdale... they lost today; however, John Bowker, recent call up, in only his third game in the majors, just missed his third homer, but did get his first triple. He is fast becoming a cult hero for this season.



Now, how do I chase these blues away? With two of my favorite films coming out on DVD today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I bought the 2 disc version of the movie, particularly so that I can get the digital copy of the film on the second disc and add it to my ipod. I also purchased it at Target (Tanforan) in order to get the exclusive script book that came with this edition.

Part of the charm of this film is Diablo Cody's quirky dialogue. Yet, I think the casting is excellent, especially Juno's parents with their idiosyncrasies. I love when Alison Janney rips back at the medical tech and tells her where she can go.

OH! what the heck... here's are some cool lines















Now for the second film in this double feature

I love dark twisted comedies and this is one of them. I read plenty of reviews and many of the critics and cinephiles definitely do not appreciate this film as much as I do.

Although the premise forces the audience to suspend their disbelief, once you follow the Ryan Gosling character deal with his own personal issues through communicating with a "real girl," I couldn't help but feel for the guy. Maybe I relate to the sense of isolation or loneliness he goes through, but I think the true comedy of the film is in how the rest of the town supports his mania. And the real girl "Bianca" becomes more active and real than he ever could be.

Here is a little vid to give you a taste of what I mean...






But the day is not yet over, for there is more to celebrate...

As I was grading, I watched game 4 of the San Jose Sharks vs. the Calgary Flames playoff match up. I admit to being frustrated after hearing about last night's Warriors debacle causing them to miss the playoffs. Calgary scored a goal right before the end of the second period to take some momentum going into the intermission.

The 3rd period was just a great battle of wills. The Sharks seemed to be exerting theirs but could never come up with a goal. With about 5 minutes remaining, Jonathan Cheechoo shoots one into the upper corner from the opposite side of the ice. I can't believe he was able to squeeze the shot into such a small window of opportunity.

The game seemed destined for overtime as the Sharks couldn't get another one into the net because of the ex-shark in goal. Then a shot akin to a hail mary pass in football from a fair distance away by Murray and slight deflection from Thornton just sneaks inside the left pipe to win the game. The thrill of victory and agony of defeat! and I succumb to both on the same day.

On an odd note... I caught a bit of American Idol when I switched there during the Sharks intermissions. I love the fact that Syesha sang my favorite Mariah Carey song "Vanishing," who cares that Simon thought she did herself a disservice by picking a relatively unknown Mariah song. I loved it. I just may have to watch more of this season. Wait... real TV is coming back... so probably not... until the finals...

And the best news of all... MANNY BELLO is back. He is one of the old Spasm gang collaborators from the days when we were young and thought we would succeed at self-publishing. And let me make this clear, we could have if we all wanted that to be our main goal and had more capital. He sent me an email today that his project Dugout is about to be released this summer. And yes, he is a big Giants fan, hence the baseball related project. Woo Hoo!

I truly need to create something for this talented man to visualize.
I love how he said he can't wait for my volume of "subversive verse."

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Two-Faced Baby

A friend of mine posted this on her blog and I couldn't believe it. I feel the need to repost and share it.

Family insists two-faced baby a goddess

Tony Tharakan, Reuters

Published: Friday, April 11, 2008

The family of an Indian baby born with two faces has refused special medical treatment for the infant, saying she's the incarnation of a Hindu goddess.

The month-old girl suffers from what appears to be craniofacial duplication, an extremely rare congenital disorder in which part of the face is duplicated on the head.

Lali, born to a family of poor farm labourers in a village about 55 kilometres east of New Delhi, has an extra pair of eyes, nose, and lips.

The family of this baby born in India with a rare case of craniofacial duplication, giving her two faces, refuses to take the month-old child to a doctor or specialist, saying she is the incarnation of a Hindu goddess.


Media reports said she ate with both mouths and blinked all four eyes.

The anomaly gave the newborn god-like status in the village, with hundreds of people flocking to the family's dilapidated brick house to worship her and seek blessings.

The family sees little to differentiate her from other babies and refused to take her to a specialist doctor.

"She is fine. She sleeps, eats and cries like other normal babies. . . . A local doctor said there is nothing wrong with the child," Bhram Singh, Lali's grandfather, told Reuters in this village of brick houses and wheat fields.

But he insists the infant is the incarnation of a Hindu goddess and points to the loudspeaker outside his house which blares religious hymns all day.

Villagers believe Lali, whose name means red because of her bright red cheeks, is a form of Shakti, the Hindu goddess of power.

"The birth is a miracle and a good sign for the village," said Daulat Ram, the village chief.

But the number of onlookers has dwindled as the "miracle" turns a month old on Friday, and few visitors now venture into the dusty lanes of Saini looking for the house where Lali lives.

Ram says that's because everyone in the vicinity had satiated their curiosity. "People are busy with the harvest season and have work to do. They won't keep coming back at this time."



Giants Baseball meets Drumline Battle #8 - Jet Li

Before we get to the next Drumline Battle... my family celebrated Dwight's Birthday and we got to meet his family. Woo Hoo!

I took so much abuse this week about the Giants record and season, particularly at the beginning of the week. Then, the Giants won three games in a row, even the KNBR hosts were wondering if that would even be possible. Well, it happened much sooner than many expected. Yet, many of the people around me said that the Giants were just playing over their heads. It will only last so long. Unfortunately, more of the games will be like Saturday's in which the Giants lose in break your heart fashion. The good thing about that is that there is always a chance they will win the game and not just get blown out like many naysayers suggest.

So I decided with this entry in the Drumline Battle, I would share a clip that shows truly what it means to battle over heads. The scene comes from the first Jet Li I ever saw. Thankfully, my buddy Eric use to take me to the UC Theater in Berkeley on Thursdays, when the theme of the night was Asian films (usually action/martial arts films). Eric helped me to discover Jet Li, John Woo, and Chow Yun Fat long before they made their first American films. In many ways, Eric is responsible for helping me to develop any film sensibility/aesthetic (while an ex-girlfriend also taught me more than I ever expected since she was a broadcast media major), which all has led me to being able to teach film lit. Enough of the Digression....

This scene from The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk introduced me to Jet Li and just how much fun and how different foreign films can be than the usual Hollywood fare.




In much the same way, Jet Li fights for pride (and a possible bride) because he is young and talented, yet he discovers he has much to learn and ultimately loses the battle. The Giants may not be choosing to lose, but they will be learning from their mistakes. As long as the games are close as they have been, they will be entertaining. Hopefully, more fans will show up to the park rather than just us true fans. The attendance this week was the lowest in ballpark history.


138 Aside:
I can't believe that during Friday night's game there were some people mad at me for not moving out of my seat for their friends because they assumed I was in their seats. They looked at me dumbfounded that I would deny their request. I stared back and said NO! I am a season ticket holder and my butt has been on this seat since 2000. I'm sorry you assumed your friends had my seats but you're wrong. They all eventually moved a few rows in front of me.

Second horrible thing to happen in 138 Friday night was some fans several feet away from me tried to start the wave. About a dozen people kept getting up trying to begin their wave. However, my section finally shaped up to true Friday night form and booed them down. My 138 family around me made them sit down as we yelled at them that the wave is not San Francisco, but an East Bay or Southern California mentality so go back to from whence you came.

Later we began a Let's Go Giants chant, and those fans who booed sarcastically said "ewww... we don't do that here! we don't cheer for our team!" Those fans are lucky that none of the stupid drunk fans that tend to show up were there and make the situation a bit unruly. It disgusts me when fans who show up to 1 or 2 games a year come to the ballpark and disregard ballpark etiquette and proceed to try to dictate how the regular hard-core fans should act. How can they yell at me and say I'm not a real fan? I haven't seen their faces there before, and I have been to a few hundred games in the last decade.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Help EC win the Tanforan competition

Tanforan update

We have dropped to 6th place. Buri Buri has just edged us by 7 points. Unfortunately, no one appears to be supporting the school in recent weeks. So here's the easiest thing anyone and everyone can do.

#1 This Saturday, April 12, Tanforan will be promoting a "Go Green" event. Any person who goes to the mall and signs a form to support El Camino between the hours of 1-4 pm (at a table expected to be near JCPenny's) will earn the school 100 points per person. So, bring your family, friends, co-workers to the mall and have them sign-in on behalf of El Camino. Of all the schools competing, we are the largest in population. No elementary school should be able to get more than us. If we can get at least half the school to show up and bring someone with them, we can close much of the gap between 6th and 3rd place--which puts us into the money prizes.

#2 Wednesday, April 16, a special preview night will be happening to promote the opening of the new movie theater, which officially opens on April 18.
On this preview night, the theaters will be playing select movies (I don't know which ones, but they are supposed to be family friendly for most audiences are elementary school students). The only people allowed to attend are students, parents, and staffs of all the schools competing for the prize. The tickets are FREE; however, in order to get a ticket you have to go to the information desk at the mall. The number of tickets available are on a first come, first serve basis. Each person may receive up to two tickets. As a special bonus, soda and popcorn will be sold for only $1. And those receipts will count for double points. New lockers to collect receipts will be placed by the theater lobby. Please encourage all your students to watch their movies there instead of the Daly City theater or anywhere else--at least until the end of May.

I can imagine our school collecting points fast, since so many of our students go to the movies. I envision El Camino coming in 1st place. Please emphasize to your students that it is not too late for us to win. So many of our students think the competition ended already, but that is just not the case.

Thank you! Keep depositing your receipts.

Opening Night/ Drumline Battle #7

The Giants are starting to stress me out. I survived a crazy opening day. If you want details, you'll have to talk to me in person. But I am a masochist, so I went back for Tuesday night. I suppose I am too loyal, but I cannot give up on my team--no matter how many of my friends think I'm being an idiot.

I brought 45 leadership students to the game tonight, and it was really cold. Most of you who know me, know I rarely get cold. I had 4 layers on tonight. Way too cold. So of course, the night I bring my class, the game goes into extra innings. However, I can't think of too many more exciting things to see live at any event than watching a walk-off home run, especially when your team is considered to be the underdog. Bengie Molina homered for the first run in the 2nd inning and won the game in the 11th... such a warm pleasant feeling to cast away the cold sense of dread. And to celebrate, the Giants did something even more rare... they won a game on Fireworks night. Special thanks to Moller, Sanguinetti, and Sidhu for helping out with the chaperoning duties and freezing their butts off in the process.




So for this next response to the Drumline war... I've decided on Rocky III... mostly for the great pump you up music and reminder that the underdog can come back to succeed.... just like the Giants will this year. Can't get much better than "Eye of the Tiger" and "Training Montage."




Woo hoo! I got another wedding invitation today. That's five weddings so far this year. I'm ahead of last year's pace of 4.

Monday, April 07, 2008

Bon Jovi

Last Wednesday, I took a much needed mental health night when I attended the Bon Jovi concert in San Jose with Lance and Macho. We met up with MA when we got to the HP Pavilion.

I find it out that BJ is one of those bands I had yet to see live. I've had some memorable shows, which includes bringing my sister to her first concert to see Motley Crue--truly an experience she'll never forget. I think my favorite quote of that night was "What's that smell?" So why had I never made it out to a BJ concert? not sure. But that has now been rectified.

So the three of us cruised on down to San Jose after a quick stop at 7-11 to pick up slurpees & other assorted goodies. It was cool to just reminisce about life in the 80s on the travel down. Daughtry proved to be a good opening act. He even added a prelude to his song "Home" by opening with the first notes and verse of Crue's "Home Sweet Home," which of course thrilled me since I believe that's one of my personal theme songs.

Bon Jovi played two hours opening with the title track of the new cd. Quickly though, the third song was "You Give Love a Bad Name" and the 18,000 people were out of their seats. However, the favorite performance of the night when we talked about the show afterwards was "Blaze of Glory." The big screen gives a tight close up shot of Jon on guitar, while the second big screen showed majestic footage of the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. Bon Jovi launches into the first verse and the stage fades to black for a moment and the second verse is being sung by Daughtry. Much cooler than I expected.



The rest of the night just rocked out. I bought my program as I do for almost every concert I've been to. However, I didn't know the night had just begun when we left San Jose. On the drive back on 101 after passing 92, traffic signs and cones began littering the freeway. The cones pushed all five lanes into the right lane and eventually off the freeway into the Anza exit detour. We then had to proceed onto Airport Blvd. The time from after 92 (and couldn't they have warned us before 92 so I could've gone home on 280) until I got back to 380 was nearly 45 minutes--a drive that should be no more than 10 minutes.

Well, thankfully, Macho and I made the most of it and plugged in the ipods and rocked all the way home. Although, the first song he played was the theme from Baywatch. We jammed to Survivor, Def Leppard, and, perhaps the funniest moment, Journey. We were stuck on Airport Blvd next to this semi trying to squeeze in front of us as the lanes were merging. The driver looks down on us and were shouting out the lyrics to "Don't Stop Believin'" or "Lights" not quite sure which one, but he had a seriously funny look on his face.

The drive took almost twice as long as it should have, but the company was excellent and it felt like a college road trip. I can't wait 'til our next concert.

Opening Day

In honor of what I feel is a national holiday... I will be attending my ninth straight home opener. I love fans who stick by their teams and are not bandwagon fans like so many of my students. Where's the loyalty even during the bad times? despite most critics and even other Giants fans saying this will be a horrible year... I will still be seating in 138 right where my season tickets state. Hopefully, this 1-5 start to the season will get better. I gotta believe in hope... otherwise I couldn't be a teacher.

So in honor of overcoming the odds and making history... here's a moment from Giants history and here's hoping another moment will happen this year in San Francisco. It would be perfect with it being the 50th anniversary since the team arrived on the west coast.


Sunday, April 06, 2008

Two Week Recap (and I didn't even take a spring break)

I am finally back. I know I showed up more often than many of you expected because of a week of drumline battle blog entries. It's time to catch you all up on the past two weeks.

Headlines

12th Annual Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam
Lack of a Spring Break
Cotillion #328
CASL conference
Milpitas High School
Birthdays galore
Happy New Year (the return of baseball & softball)

One of the best things I could have done this entire year was to attend the 12th Annual Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam. I've always attended a variety of events around the city, especially open mics in small restaurants or bars. However, there is nothing quite like an Opera House filled with 3,000 people who paid for tickets to see teenagers express themselves. The poets ranged from a 14 year old with roots in the Killing Fields of Camodia to two different women who brought the land of Palestine come alive. The nearly three hour show empowered me and everyone else in attendance.

The show began with two excellent poets serving as the emcees for the night--Chinaka Hodge and George Watsky (both former slam champions). You should really click on their names and see their youtube performances from HBO's Def Poetry Jam. They even ended the evening with an awesome political group poem. Two of the five judges also were on Def Poetry--Beth Lisick and Mush, who happened to lead a youth speaks workshop in my class about three years ago. Yet, I love how the emcees always reminded the audience how stupid it is to rate poetry with numbers. But it had to happen, because the top 6 poets of the 18 who performed would represent the Bay Area at the National Poetry Slam competition in Washington D.C. this summer. Here is a youtube performance from last year's slam with one of the poets who made the final 5 this year--Simone Crew. The most important thing to happen at least for me is that about a dozen El Camino students were able to attend the slam. And the power of the word is continuing at our school now that we have a residency program led by Prentice Powell, who leads workshops after school every Tuesday until the end of the year.

Lack of a Spring Break

Spring Break started off strong with dinner with some friends at Les Amis (check out that entry) and the poetry slam. Yet, the next 4 days, Monday thru Thursday, involved narrowing down 70 applicants for leadership class. We interviewed 50 prospective students. I always find this difficult because I have students who want to serve their school, but I need to tell 20 of them, you have potential (and they all do) but unfortunately the panel found someone we think will fill the position/commission better than you. I have students take 3 different personality tests, hence the reason one of my entries was my personality profile. The students need to compete in a group activity in which they work with other applicants, some of whom are their direct competition for the class, to create an activity to improve the school's ability to reach out to our "invisible students."

This year had to be one of the most difficult years to narrow the class down. I know it would be unrealistic to have a class of 70 students, so just two days ago, the panel notified those who were selected and not selected. I feel it was very important that we did one on one exit interviews to let each individual know why s/he was not selected, because they still have a lot to offer the school and unfortunately it won't be through leadership for the next school year.

As always, I looked over my 30 new commissioners and felt a twinge of nervousness. For the next year, these students will partly dictate my life and will be responsible for bearing the torch of school spirit. I don't know many of them yet and have only ten students returning from this year's class. I suppose this is what many college coaches feel when their student athletes graduate or jump to the professional leagues. I must admit though, their is an exciting new energy that surrounds them. We'll see...


COTILLION #328

I was able to sneak in a cotillion on March 28 between interviewing and another conference. I feel like I've been to over a hundred of these, but I doubt that. This one though was very moving with many students I knew attending as well as parents. The parents and one of the 18 Candles presenters even mentioned me in their acknowledgments and poem, respectively. Times like these always remind me how thankful I am for my career and the effect it has on so many lives.


CASL CONFERENCE

So I ended spring break by attending a 3-day conference with four students. I took one girl from each grade level to the California Association of Student Leaders annual conference in San Jose. After the first day of workshops, one of the most humoring comments one of the students made was that the workshop didn't provide any new ideas, for all the information and suggestions given were all things we did already. The three days allowed my students to view El Camino in a new light... a light in which they see EC is an excellent school that has much to offer. Thankfully, Saturday and Sunday had more to offer my students in terms of ideas. A particularly nice moment was when my ASB Vice President crossed the stage to accept our school's Outstanding Activity Program Award for 2008. By bringing the plaque back to our school, it helps reminds the leadership class and other students and faculty members that our school is experiencing a wonderful year.

One of the particularly odd moments of the conference was that the whole delegation were given 2 hours and dinner at Great America. I haven't been there in years. I felt so out of place there as I recalled the opening of such events as The Demon, Grizzly, and Top Gun. Now, the park feels a little underwhelming. Maybe because it was cold. The nostalgia, though, filled me for an hour as I repeated the feeling of riding some of these things for the first time. Then, I just wanted a funnel cake, because a good funnel cake makes all thing right in the world for that moment in time.

Another particularly welcome part of the conference was getting to see many of the advisors from around the state whom I just saw at the CADA conference a month prior. I always love sharing ideas with other schools and picking their brains for new things. This year's most exciting idea--I found out a school is having their Senior Ball at AT&T Park. You know, I gotta try and make that happen. Our friends of the year also happened to attend the conference.


MILPITAS HIGH SCHOOL

So at the conference, I had to opportunity to spend some time sharing ideas with Ms. Lee once again. We discussed what her students thought about watching our Lip Sync Rally two weeks prior. But the best part of it all, because the conference ended early on Monday, Ms. Lee invited my girls and I the opportunity to visit her school and leadership class. Luckily, our school tends to have other schools visit us, for we are often mentioned as one of those schools you should check out (at least that's what some of the speakers or other teachers from around the state say... and how we ended up with a school from Washington state visit us two/three years ago, who also attended a Giants game with our leadership class... some of those students still keep in touch with some of our alumni through myspace). However, we were able to visit Milpitas.

Their campus has 3,000 students with several building encircling a central courtyard. I love their classrooms. Although they appear smaller at first, most of the rooms possess a feature I want desperately. The whiteboards at the front of the rooms all slide so you can keep info on one board and begin writing on another if students are still copying down info without me having to erase it yet. Then, the whiteboards also slide because behind them is storage space covered by those boards. Additionally, the boards are surrounded by cabinets and shelving that completely fill that one wall. I would love all that room to organize and store all the leadership items. Then I entered their leadership room and they have a complete storage room in the back with shelves holding what looks like every rally item they would need for a couple of years. They must have three times the storage space. However, I do have to admit that I at least have a full classroom for my class; they have to share their space with the student store. The next biggest jaw dropping feature of this school was the cardio room filled with 40 elliptical machines and exercise bikes. I need to figure out how to get one of those rooms. P.E. would love it.

Thanks to Ms. Lee, her leadership students and the Milpitas staff for allowing us to visit and even observe some of the classes that were going on at the time.


BIRTHDAYS GALORE

April Fool's Day honored the amazing Jan Arney who left 138 to enjoy life as a grandmother in Sacramento. Also, former AV, now my softball captain celebrated his 21st.

Four co-workers also had a birthday this past week and they are all people who help me a lot to do what I do at school. I appreciate you all so much. I'm still trying to figure out how to make one of them stop their plans from leaving our EC family, but I just don't have enough incentive for them.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

and I don't know what this portends for us this year.... but I love this time of year sportswise... the Warriors are fighting for a playoff spot, the Sharks are the 2 seed in the west, the Stanford women's basketball team will be playing for the NCAA championship Tuesday night, and in a few short hours... opening day for the Giants at the ballpark. I so agree with Cincinnati. That town gets it right, by declaring opening day a town holiday and all schools close down for the event. Well, it's a holiday for me, especially since I didn't get one during spring break. One day off in trade for giving up 6 days. Not quite the fair trade, but at least I have some priorities that aren't work-related in my life.

BETTER THAN DRUMLINE #6

anyone else notice that my brother is now posting his own film clips at his blog site, Lanciness.

here's my newest entry... I just felt the need for another scene set in a school... enjoy
this battle of quotes from Finding Forrester... sorta sums up my entry of school, leadership, and spoken word to express yourself