Run down of the festival:
4:00am Breakfast fail. Nothing was opened that early (except CVS 24 hour, but they didn't have bagels)
4:30am Breakfast saved. Cynthia came prepared--bought everything beforehand. Yay! Canopies unloading and opening up. Sprinklers going off at this time.
????am Bathroom break. Canopies, tables and chairs being moved onto the grass. More sprinklers going off at this time after some lag. Things (and people) got wet.
6:00am Signs/A frames assembled and go out on the street and parking lots. Note: first injury incurred at this time.
????am Insert contacts, sunglasses, and first application of sunscreen. Canopy signage goes up, main stage still being worked on, putting together the info booth. First ice run with Chris and Minh.
10:30am ish Putting drinks into coolers, completing the info booth, a lot of "Where are the performers/elected officials?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!
11:00am Opening ceremony. First soda run with Duy (thanks for driving!) and Richard. Put soda into cooler and getting late arrivals settled in.
11:30am Second ice run with Jimmy, cleaned up a bit, cleared out hotel room (found a toothbrush btw if anyone's missing one) checked out of hotel on Dennis-Michael's behalf, travel to second ice machine to complete filling up tub. Second soda run. Drop off half the soda at info booth. Drop off other half of soda at 2nd info booth. Ice spillage. Clean up. Trash bag replacement. Vince ordering food for me and Jimmy. Return to first info booth, helping get rest of drinks situated/cool.
1:45pm ish Called brother so family could finally meet up with me. Eating the Tabe tacos that Vince had ordered (delivered by Eileen--thanks girl!!). Food run for Dennis-Michael, Mark, and more for me/sharing with Richard and Ivan.
3:00pm ish Third application of sunscreen. Found kaned89, winner of ACF promo video contest and proud new owner of a Sony Bloggie, congratulated him, ran over to volunteer booth to helped Mt Carmel HS Key Clubbers check in, ran back to kaned89 to continue answering his questions about claiming his Bloggie, ran back to volunteer booth to inquire about the Bloggie, ran back to kaned89 to exchange numbers so I could call him after tracking down who had the Bloggie, watched Terry Matsuoka beatbox with Jimmy where at the end of his song, I screamed I LOVE YOU! and Jimmy screamed HAVE MY BAaby..., took picture with Jimmy and the lady in white/statue lady, relieved Paula from the crafts booth so she could finally eat, made paper lanterns with little kids, was informed who had the Bloggie, called kaned89 and walked him to the volunteer booth, returned to crafts booth, helped make a mask for the kids, picked up trash around crafts booths, watched the Qigong class bump it to afterschoolspecial, wandered past the vendors to the other information booth, helped sell soda/water. Another Tabe run, helped with the vendor tent that got blown over, cleaned up a bit, looked for trash bags, met backstage for “roll call,” shared a coconut with everyone, decided against “roll call,” started tear down.
6:00pm ish Dumped out water and ice from coolers, closing canopies, folding chairs and tables. Transport all canopies, tables and chairs to volunteer booth area for the trucks to pick up.
7:45pm ish Trash pickup. Group picture. Contact attack, eyes burning (that sucked so much, I couldn’t rub my eyes because I was just picking up trash), Vince applied eye drops for me, more pictures, eyes burned even more, washed hands (omg, I have no idea who this super nice volunteer was who helped me wash my hands and calm me down, but I want to thank him!!!). Removed contacts, put on glasses, more trash pickup.
8:30pm ish Load extra sodas into car
8:45pm ish Return trip for sodas
9:00pm ish Meet at Sports Bar and Grill for food (salad and Cajun fries…probably should have just had salad)
11:30pm ish Home. Long, hot shower. Dry hair. Brush teeth.
12:30am Bed.
Today, I got to respond to a very interesting email. The email was in regards to the Asian Cultural Festival, and how a particular attendee was disappointed that instead of “fine examples of Asian culture,” the attendee saw “Asian people imitating American culture” (in reference to the “loud rap music” on the main stage). The attendee also suggested that we “try to have more traditional Asian music and food…”
Here’s my response:
Dear XXX,
Thank you for contacting the Asian Cultural Festival committee. We thank you for attending the festival and appreciate your enthusiasm. However, we’re sorry to hear that you were disappointed. Although we did not explicitly state this in our goals, the festival strives to not only celebrate and preserve the heritage of Asian peoples but also the culture of Asian Americans. It is difficult enough to define what it means to be an Asian person or an American person, but to be an Asian American is to consistently define and redefine how “Asian” and how “American” you are at any given time. Only the individual can decide how “Asian” and how “American” they want to be. And one of the best things about living in the United States of America is that everyone has the right to express themselves in any way they want. So in your specific example of the loud rap music, rap just happens to be the medium that the artist chooses to express him/herself. It is not “Asian people imitating American culture,” it is Asian Americans simply being Asian Americans.
While we can continue this discourse for hours on end, we must point out to you that if you do not like rap music, we did have another stage exclusively for fine examples of Asian culture and martial art exhibitions, as well as a separate area for cooking demonstrations.
XXX, thank you again for attending the Asian Cultural Festival, and for contacting us. We hope you learned a little bit about what it means to be Asian American today.
Sincerely,
The Asian Cultural Festival Committee
No comments:
Post a Comment